
> 



JLe+tsU* M7f. fau^ Iffy 



MEMOIRS 



OF TH] 



REV. NOAH "WORCESTER, D. D. 



EEV. HENRY WARE, JR., D . D 



WITH A 



PREFACE, NOTES, AND A CONCLUDING CHAPTER, 



By SAMUEL WORCESTER. 



is 71 



I 

BOSTON: 



JAMES. MUNROE AND COMPANY 
1844. 



of- \\ 



^4 



wmmss 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, 
By James Munroe and Company, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



boston: 

PRINTED BY THURSTON, TORRY, & CO., 

31 Devonshire Street. 



1 



PREFACE. 



In the year 1821 the Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, D. D., 
requested my father to write Memoirs of his own life, and 
about the same time I communicated to him a similar re- 
quest from his children. It was with great reluctance that 
he consented to make the effort ; but he commenced the 
work in June 1822, in a series of Letters addressed to Dr. 
Tuckerman, the last of which is dated Jan. 26, 1832. 
When I asked him, from time to time, what progress he 
had made, he always said that this work was very unpleas- 
ant to him, and that he could not do it well. His time was 
much occupied in writing on other subjects which he 
thought more important, and he added nothing to the 
Memoir in the last five and a half years of his life. 

Many years before his death he expressed a wish that 
the manuscripts which he might leave at the time of his 
death, should fall into my hands ; and he desired that Dr. 
Channing, Dr. Tuckerman, and Dr. Ware, Jr., should 



PREFACE. 



advise and assist me in making selections for publication. 
I requested him to leave a memorandum of his wishes on 
this subject, to which he assented. At a later period I 
requested him to leave very explicit directions in respect to 
his manuscripts ; and also to specify which of them he 
thought most important to have published, and which of 
his printed works he thought most useful to be reprinted. 
This last request was made because I thought it possible 
that the public might desire to have a uniform edition of 
his most important writings, together with his Autobiogra- 
phr. He seemed pleased with my suggestions, and said he 
would endeavor to comply with them. 

I mentioned to my father two reasons for making these 
requests : those whom he named as my advisers might be 
unable to assist me ; and my views on several religious 
doctrines were so different from his own, that it might be 
difficult to satisfy others that I acted impartially, and ful- 
filled my duty to him. 

Immediately after my father's death, Oct. 31, 1837, I 
took possession of all his papers, and examined them very 
carefully ; and, to my great regret, no directions, and no 
notice of my requests could be found. I was thus left 
under the necessity of acting according to what I could 
remember to have been requested by him, or assented to in 
answer to my suggestions. I made known my father's 
desire that Drs. Channing, Tuckerman, and Ware, should 
give me advice and assistance, and I gave them a full view 
of the 3ISS. which he had left. They treated me with 



PREFACE. 



v 



great kindness and justice, and examined the Memoirs and 
several other MSS. 

Not only these gentlemen and myself, but all the relatives 
of my father to whom I could show his Autobiography, 
were agreed in the decision that it ought not to be published 
as. the Memoirs of Dr. Worcester. It does, indeed, 
record the principal historical facts belonging to a suitable 
Memoir. It also furnishes many other useful materials ; 
but it does not present his character and works as others 
saw them and ought to see them, — it does not give any 
fair and adequate view of the real usefulness of his labors, 
nor of the estimation in which they were held by the intel- 
ligent and virtuous of his own times. 

It was the earnest desire of Dr. Channing, Dr. Tucker- 
man, and many other friends of my father, that Dr. Ware 
should write his Memoirs ; but the feeble state of Dr. 
Ware's health, and his numerous and arduous labors, ren- 
dered it impossible for him to undertake the work at so 
early a period as was desirable. After he consented to 
perform it, he was delayed by sickness and by unforeseen 
labors ; and it was not till the autumn of 1842, that he was 
able to devote much attention to it. It is with pain that I 
remember the anxiety which was caused him by this delay. 
He often expressed sorrow that he had consented to write 
the Memoirs, and wished that I would employ some other 
person ; but I knew not how to find any one of equal quali- 
fications ; and I constantly desired him to feel at ease on the 
subject, and not labor upon it till he had health and leisure* 
a* 



vi 



PREFACE. 



He had indeed a strong wish to write the Memoirs of Dr. 
Worcester ; and I am certain that no fault should be im- 
puted to him on account of his delaying and partially failing 
to perform the work. 

Dr. Tuckerman agreed to examine all my father's Man- 
uscripts, select the best, and prepare them for publication. 
In this he was to have some assistance from Dr. Channing. 
Dr. Tuckerman's health failed before he performed any part 
of this labor. His death and that of Dr. Channing, left the 
whole work for Dr. Ware and myself. He also has gone 
home before the work is completed ; and the duty of finish- 
ing it devolves upon me, when my health has become too 
feeble to perform it well. All those whom my father 
named as my advisers and assistants, have left me, to be- 
come his companions. 

When I visited Dr. Ware in Nov. 1842, it was agreed 
that I should make such inquiries of the booksellers, as 
would help us to decide how many volumes should be 
published. We proposed a selection from the printed works 
of my father, and one or two volumes from his Manuscripts, 
in addition to the Memoirs. The state of the book-market 
was such at that time, that it was deemed improper to pub- 
lish any part of these works ; and the advice given to Dr. 
Ware was, that the Memoirs should be finished, and that 
we should wait for a more favorable time for publishing. 
This removed from his mind the feeling that it was neces- 
sary to do the work now, and he permitted other duties to 
take its place. This accounts for his not completing the 



PREFACE. 



vii 



Memoirs previous to April 1843, when his health failed so 
much that he seems to have added nothing to this work. 
After his death in September, Mrs. Ware kindly sent me all 
the papers which she found relating to the Memoirs. 

It appears that Dr. Ware designed to have the work con- 
sist of eight Chapters. Five Chapters seem to be com- 
pleted, with the exception of a few facts, and the last labor 
of correcting the composition. I do not find any paper 
headed as Chapter VI., nor anything that I am certain was 
intended for it ; but I have put in this place what seemed 
most suitable. 

I find the beginning of Chapter VII., and such things as 
I have arranged under that head. For Chapter VIII. I 
find only a few fragments. He did not attempt to write 
it, and has left only a few scattered remarks. 

It seems to me and to others that the most important part 
of the work is done, that it is valuable, and should not be 
lost. It is indeed a very delicate and difficult task, to pre- 
pare these papers for publication ; and I should be wholly 
unwilling to undertake it, were not the relatives of Dr. 
Ware so competent and so ready to assist me. The reader 
will find that where I have made changes, they are made 
in brackets ; and that where I have added Notes, they are 
given as mine. I have omitted very few passages which 
Dr. Ware wrote. His account of the family of Noah 
Worcester, Esq., in the first Chapter, was very imperfect ; 
I have therefore omitted it, and inserted a statement in 
brackets. 



viii 



PREFACE. 



Dr. Ware intended that the last Chapter should give an 
account of my father's last days, his sickness, and his 
death ; and also a review of his labors, and his character. 
It is necessary that I should write this Chapter ; and I can 
give the facts which are required, more easily than any 
other person. I can also add some things which the reader 
may wish to know, but which might not be easily said by 
another. But the general view of my father's character 
and labors, with which Dr. Ware intended to close the Me- 
moirs, must be omitted. The reader will regret that Dr. 
Ware did not write it ; but his regret will be less than he 
anticipates, when he finds how fully Dr. Worcester's labors 
are described, and how justly his character is delineated, 
in the Chapters which are completed. 

It may be expected that I should give a more particular 
account of the Manuscripts left by my father, than is con- 
tained in the following Memoirs. Dr. Ware did not read 
all of them ; but, relying partly on Dr. Tuckerman and 
myself, he selected and examined those which seemed to be 
most important. It may be well to name those which he 
set apart as the parcel which he had examined and retained, 
as what would probably go wholly or partially, into the 
volumes which he proposed to publish. 

1. " The Messiah's Kingdom not of this world." This 
is particularly mentioned in the fifth Chapter of the Me- 
moirs and the Note following. 

2. " Appeals to the Bible in Search of Truth." It is 
written in numbers, and treats of a great variety of sub- 



PREFACE. 



ix 



jects, and would make a large volume duodecimo. It is 
plain that this Manuscript was written with great care, 
and I recollect that my father expected me to publish it. 

3. "Review of facts relating to the Redemption by 
Jesus Christ." This also was prepared with great care, 
and made ready for the press. It would perhaps make 
sixty or eighty pages. 

4. " Letters to a Candid Minister concerning Redemp- 
tion." There are six letters, in five sheets. 

5. " Select Inquiries on several subjects." This would 
make twenty or thirty pages. 

6 "Philosophy of Reformation." This would make 
forty or fifty pages. 

These with a very few short pieces are what Dr. Ware 
regarded as the most important of the Manuscripts. 

Another parcel of the Manuscripts is marked as not hav- 
ing been read by Dr. Ware in January 1843 ; and it seems 
to me nearly certain that he never read them. The package 
consists of a very great number of short articles, on a great 
variety of subjects. Several of these would, I think, be 
found interesting and useful. The poetical articles are very 
numerous, and would make a large volume ; but Dr. Ware 
did not think that they should be printed. There are a few 
Sermons, and a great many other Manuscripts, which a 
judicious editor would not select for publication. My father 
seldom wrote any more than short notes for his Sermons ; 
and those which he preached from these notes, were gener- 
ally the best. 



X 



PREFACE. 



I do not yet find encouragement for printing even the 
most valuable of these Manuscripts ; but I am willing to 
show them to the friends of my father's sentiments, and 
publish them whenever it is thought prudent. 

In respect to the following Memoirs, I owe it to the 
memory of Dr. Ware, to say, that they seem to me to be 
written with great candor, ability, and fidelity. In some 
parts I discover marks of his very feeble health ; but on 
all the principal topics, I think the work will be found 
highly satisfactory. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth-place, Ancestors, Brothers. Life from childhood to 
manhood. Service in the war of the Revolution. Resi- 
dence in Plymouth. Deficiencies of education. How he 
learned to write. His marriage. His becoming School- 
master 1 „ 

CHAPTER II. 

Removal from Plymouth to Thornton. His religious charac- 
ter at this period. His occupations during the first years 
of his residence at Thornton. His study. The first book 
that he wrote. Became the Minister of Thornton ; remarks 
concerning his Ministry. His early writings, and his 
habits in writing. Death of his wife; her character. 
Second Marriage. Missionary labors. Muscular powers 
and loss of them. Changes in his opinions. Removal to 
Salisbury. . . .... 11 

CHAPTER III. 

Publication of Bible News with its attendant circumstances. 
He was invited to. become the Editor of the Christian 
Disciple. . . . . . . . . 35 



xii 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Removal to Brighton, Mass. Labors as Editor of the Christ- 
ian Disciple. His preparation for the works for which 
he is most distinguished; his Solemn Review of the Cus- 
tom of War, and the Friend of Peace. Character of 
these works. ........ 58 

CHAPTER V. 

Later Inquiries and Publications on Redemption and Human 
Nature. Note by the Editor. .... 77 

CHAPTER VI. 

Dr. Worcester's habits in writing and publishing. His pa- 
tience, candor, and conscientiousness. ... 96 

CHAPTER VII. 

Expressions of the state of Dr. Worcester's mind at different 
periods, or his religious experience. — Editor's Note. 101 

CHAPTER VIII. 

[By the Editor.] 

Selections from Dr. Ware's manuscripts. Extract from Dr. 
Channing's Sermon. Concluding remarks by the Ed- 
itor. . • • ■ * • • • ■ 121 



MEMOIRS 



OF 

THE REV. NOAH WORCESTER, D. D. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth-place, Ancestors, Brothers. Life from childhood to 
manhood. Service in the war of the Revolution. Resi- 
dence in Plymouth. Deficiencies of education. How he 
learned to write. His marriage. His becoming a School- 
master. 

[Noah Worcester was torn Nov. 25th, 1758, 
at Hollis, N. H., then a new and obscure place, 
the settlement of which was commenced in 1730. 
He was the oldest son of Noah Worcester, Esq., 
who was a son of the Rev. Francis Worcester, 
who was for some years pastor of a church in 
Sandwich, Mass., and who died at Hollis in 1783. 
The Rev. Francis Worcester was the great grand- 
son of the Rev. William Worcester, who came 
from Salisbury in England, and was the first minis- 
1 



2 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



ter of the church in Salisbury, Mass., which was 
instituted in 1638 and was the 18th church, in the 
order of time, formed in Massachusetts Bay. 

In " An Address delivered on the Centennial 
Celebration to the People of Hollis, N. H., Sept. 
15th, 1830, by the Rev. Grant Powers," there is 
a notice of Noah Worcester, Esq. and his family, 
from which the following extract is made. u The 
daughter of Mr. Taylor [one of the first settlers 
of Hollis], married Noah Worcester, Esq., whose 
memory is with us to-day as one of the fathers of 
the town for a long series of years. He had an 
active and vigorous mind, was one of the framers of 
the Constitution of this State, sustained the office 
of magistrate for more than forty years, and was a 
member of this church more than sixty years. Mr. 
Worcester and his wife [his first wife] had seven 
children, and of their posterity eighteen have either 
received the honors of college, or are now members 
of New England colleges. Eight are, or have 
been, ministers of the Gospel." 

The names of the five sons of Noah Worcester, 
Esq., by his first marriage, were as follows : — Noah 
Worcester, D. D., the subject of these Memoirs ; 
Jesse Worcester, a very intelligent and respectable 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



3 



farmer, who resided on the paternal estate at Hol- 
lis ; Leonard Worcester, A. M., ordained pastor 
of the church in Peacham, Vt. in 1799 ; Thomas 
Worcester, A. M., pastor of the church in Salis- 
bury, N. H., from 1797 to 1823; and Samuel 
Worcester, D. IX, pastor of the church in Fitch- 
burg, Mass., from 1797 to 1802 ; and of the Tab- 
ernacle church in Salem, from 1803 till his death in 
1821. 

Leonard Worcester, the only survivor of these 
brothers, a man greatly respected for his talents and 
virtues, and for the excellence of his ministerial 
character, was bred a printer, and carried on the 
business for some years in Worcester, Mass., and 
was at the same time editor of the Massachusetts 
Spy. After a useful ministry at Peacham of about 
forty years he was obliged, three or four years since, 
to retire from the public duties of his profession on 
account of declining health. Thomas Worcester, 
who was a man of good talents and much esteemed, 
died in 1831, having been a great invalid for several 
years. Samuel Worcester, the only one of the five 
brothers who had the advantages of a collegiate 
education, is well known as one of the most distin- 
guished theologians of his age in this country. His 



4 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



name is associated especially with the cause of Mis- 
sions, he having been the Corresponding Secretary 
of the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions, from its institution in 1810 till his 
death.] 



These facts show what must have been the do- 
mestic discipline of the house in which the subject 
of these Memoirs spent his earliest years. Religion 
must have had there a favorite and familiar home. 
The air that he breathed during childhood was that 
of religion. His grandparents made part of the 
family, and he tells us that u all united to make 
early a deep impression on his mind in favor of 
religion and against vice ; and that in these efforts 
they were so far successful, that his religious im- 
pressions were of the earliest date of any thing he 
can remember, excepting," he adds, " a burn which 
I received in my bosom when I was about two 
years old." From the time that he was twelve 
years old he was accustomed to lead the daily wor- 
ship of the family in the absence of his father. As 
a proof of the consciousness which at the earliest 
period was cultivated in him, he relates the distress 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



5 



which he once endured, before he was five years 
old, at the idea that he had been guilty of the sin of 
falsehood in asserting as a fact what had been told 
him without his knowing it to be true ; and the 
relief which he experienced in having the difference 
between an unintentional departure from truth and a 
design to deceive, explained to him. 

He was taught to read at a very early age, and 
took pleasure in reading. He is remembered as 
being always accounted one of the best scholars in 
the school, and as employing his leisure time at 
home, in reading or studying, or teaching the younger 
children. The best opportunities of education were 
at that time and in that place but small, and his 
privileges became poor indeed as he advanced in 
years. For as he grew to be large and strong for 
his age, his services as a laborer were too valuable 
to be dispensed with, and he was only spared from 
the farm to attend the brief school of a few weeks 
during the winter season. Neither grammar nor 
geography made any part of his studies ; and scan- 
ty as his advantages were, they ceased with the 
winter of 1774-5, when he was but sixteen years 
old. 

On the breaking out of the Revolutionary war the 
1 * 



6 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



next spring, he joined the army as a fifer, and 
continued in the service for about eleven months. 
He narrowly escaped being made prisoner at the 
battle of Bunker Hill ; in the confusion of the 
retreat he ran toward a party of the enemy, and 
barely discovered his mistake in season to correct 
it. He again was in the army for two months, 
c£ to please his father " # he says, during the cam- 
paign of 1777. He was then fife-major. It was 
his fortune to be in the battle of Bennington ; 
where, as he said afterward, "he felt much worse 
in going over the ground the next day, than during 
the engagement." When the term of his enlistment 
expired, he was solicited with some urgency to 
remain in the army, and offers were made to raise 
his wages to those of a non-commissioned officer ; 
but he disliked the business, and he was in love ; 
he therefore persisted in quitting the camp ; express- 
ing devout gratitude to that kind Providence which 
had led him unharmed through the terrible moral 
dangers to which he had been exposed. u One 
effect, however," he says, u occurred from my 

* His father commanded a company at the breaking out of 
the war, but it does not appear that he was ever in active ser- 
vice. — Powers' Address. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



7 



being in the army, which I could not but observe 
with some alarm. From my childhood till I became 
a soldier, my sympathetic affections or passions 
were remarkably tender ; so that I was easily moved 
to tears by any affecting objects or circumstances. 
But the first funeral I attended at home after having 
been in the army, I was shocked to find myself so 
changed and so unmoved on such an occasion." 

The interval between his two military expeditions 
was in several respects an important period of his 
life. He resided for a time in the family of his uncle 
Francis Worcester at Plymouth, whither he had gone 
with a view to engaging in the manufacture of ma- 
ple sugar. Here was residing also his uncle's step- 
daughter, Hannah Brown, a native of Newburyport, 
a fine girl of sixteen, whose admirable qualities 
attracted his warmest affection. A mutual attach- 
ment grew up between the young pair, and spite of 
poverty, war, and youth, they pledged themselves 
to each other. This was in the season of 1776-7. 
He was eighteen years old, she was sixteen. 

It was during this winter too that he first occu- 
pied himself as an instructor. He undertook the 
care of the village school ; and, notwithstanding 
what w 7 e have seen must have been his very in- 



8 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



adequate preparation for such a task, he acquitted 
himself to the satisfaction of his employers, and 
pursued the occupation for nine successive winters. 
He was perfectly aware of his deficiencies, and 
anxious and resolute to remove them. He availed 
himself with diligence of the best means within his 
reach. How good these were, and what obstacles 
he had to contend against may be seen in his ac- 
count of them. 

" In the course of that winter, I probably ac- 
quired more useful knowledge than I had even 
before done in any two winters by going to school. 
After I became an instructor I felt the importance of 
learning, and exerted myself to obtain it by such 
means as were then within my power. I found 
myself deficient in the art of writing ; and being at 
Plymouth in N. H. in the summer season, where it 
was difficult to procure paper during the war, I 
wrote over a quantity of white birch bark, in imi- 
tation of some excellent copies which I found in 
that place. By this means I made considerable 
improvement in leisure hours and rainy weather. 
About this time I procured a dictionary, which was 
the first I ever had the privilege of perusing, though 
I was then in my eighteenth year." 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



9 



So young, and yet already he had been in one 
battle and was soon to be in another, had taught 
school one winter, and was engaged to be married. 
This engagement, as was natural, seems to have 
hastened his settlement in life. In September, 
1778, he purchased of his father the remainder of 
his minority, and left home for Plymouth, intending 
to make that town the place of his residence, and 
expecting to spend his days as a farmer, except so 
far as he might obtain employment as a schoolmaster. 
Here he was married the next year, on the day he 
was twenty-one years of age. 

And now, having accompanied him up to man- 
hood, what have we found in his circumstances, 
character or education, to give any prediction of 
the place which he was afterward to fill in life ? 
What was there so extraordinary, that, if he had 
died then, any one should say, " Alas, alas, the 
world has lost a benefactor ; the progress of man is 
put back ? " • A conscientious child, a good boy, 
an enterprising youth, hopeful, diligent and brave ; 
but so far from being apparently on the path to liter- 
ary eminence or distinction of life, he has barely 
studied enough to attain the accomplishment of a 
district school teacher, and that in a region so ob- 



10 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



scure and so remote from the means of improvement, 
that his paper has been birch bark, and he meets no 
dictionary till he has reached his eighteenth year. 
No one could doubt that with his athletic frame, his 
capacity for labor and his spirit of enterprise, he 
would make his way in the world, and probably 
thrive. No one could doubt that with his exemplary 
correctness of life and readiness to serve others, he 
would be a useful member of society. But he was 
now settled for life, as a small farmer in a small 
place. To human eye there was no prospect that 
he could ever move in any other sphere, or be known 
beyond the limits of his own village. In this case as 
in multitudes of others, how strikingly was the say- 
ing verified, "It is not in man that walketh to 
direct his steps ! " 



CHAPTER II. 



Removal from Plymouth to Thornton. Hts religious charac- 
ter at this period. His occupations during the first years 
of his residence at Thornton. His study. The first book 
that he wrote. . Became the Minister of Thornton ; remarks 
concerning his Ministry. His early writings, and his hab- 
its in writing. Death of his wife ; her character. Second 
Marriage. Missionary labors. Muscular powers, and loss 
of them. Changes in his opinions. Removal to Salisbury. 

u From the facts and circumstances which have 
been already mentioned," — we now copy from the 
autobiography, — "it will be obvious to you, that 
to the time of my marriage, my advantages for 
acquiring knowledge must have been very small ; 
perhaps not half so good as are now generally 
enjoyed in my native town. * * * I shall here 
mention one fact which has seemed to myself re- 
markable, when compared with the course I have 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



pursued since I was twenty-five years of age. At 
the age of twenty-one, I think I had never written 
any compositions of my own of any kind, except 
such as the following. I had written letters on my 
own account and for others who had friends in the 
army. I had probably written notes, bonds, and 
deeds, some of which I recollect. When teaching 
a school, I was in the habit of composing copies 
for my scholars, and questions in Arithmetic, instead 
of taking them from books. Excepting such com- 
positions as have now been named, I have no recol- 
lections of having written any of my own till after I 
was married. I had, however, from my childhood 
been much in the habit of reflection and inquiry ; 
and probably I was too much inclined to argument 
and disputation, on various subjects. I think I was 
not more than twelve years old when this propensity 
was mentioned to me as one of my faults. Though 
the propensity was doubtless in some instances 
imprudently indulged, it was probably a means of 
my advancement in knowledge. 

" The first of my compositions of a nature differ- 
ent from those I have mentioned, were argumenta- 
tive, and in the form of objections to the first pro- 
posed constitution for the state of New Hampshire. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



13 



A Convention of delegates had formed a constitution, 
which they caused to be printed and sent to the 
different towns with a request that such objections 
as should occur might be stated in writing with 
reasons for their support, and forwarded to the 
Convention at their next meeting. I had the cu- 
riosity to examine the constitution, and finding some 
things in it which I deemed objectionable, I stated 
them in writing, and showed them to a neighbor. 
In consequence of these steps, I was chosen by 
the town as one of the committee to examine the 
constitution, and state such objections as should 
occur. As the committee were apprized of the 
fact that I had paid some attention to the subject, 
the task of writing was assigned to me. This I 
performed to the satisfaction of the committee and 
of the town. By this first effort, I acquired a 
taste for writing, and a hope that by further prac- 
tice I might be able to write to advantage." 

As no date is given, it is not clear whether this 
took place during Mr. Worcester's residence in 
Plymouth, or after his removal to Thornton. To 
the latter place, a small town in the neighborhood, 
he removed in February, 1782, about three and a 
half years after his marriage. Here his religious 
2 



14 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

character seems to have received a quickened devel- 
opment, and he made a profession of religion in the 
succeeding August. His brief account of this event 
it is proper to give in his own words. " When I 
removed from Plymouth to Thornton, neither my 
wife nor myself had joined any church as members. 
This neglect was not, I believe, in either of us, the 
fruit of disrespect to religion or its institutions. 
"We had been educated under the influence of 
Christian instruction, and had grown up, as I trust, 
under the influence of religious principles. Though 
our love and obedience had been imperfect, we had 
a reverence for God, and for the precepts of the 
gospel. But neither of us could name the day of 
our conversion, nor could we honestly relate such 
distressing agitations of mind and subsequent trans- 
ports of joy as we had heard from the lips of others, 
and which we had been led to regard as the evi- 
dences of having been born of God. We had 
not duly reflected on the fact, that these are not the 
evidences of a good heart which are mentioned in 
the Bible. But after we removed to Thornton, we 
were under the ministry of the Rev. Experience 
Estabrook, an eminently pious man, and by his 
preaching and conversation we were led to a more 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



15 



serious consideration of the importance of showing 
our regard to God and to the precepts of his Son, 
by becoming more openly professors of religion. 
And after much serious thought and inquiry we 
obtained such satisfaction that we were encouraged 
to become members of the church, though not both 
at the same time. 

" I have long been convinced that the same incor- 
rect views by which we were detained from joining 
the church at an earlier period, have had a similar 
effect on the minds of many others, who were 
truly pious people ; and that such views have not 
only subjected many pious Christians to great per' 
plexity, but have retarded their advances in true 
godliness, and exposed them to temptation. It is 
on many accounts a great advantage to persons of 
real piety to be known as professors of religion, 
and particularly so as it tends to their greater watch- 
fulness and circumspection. When they are known 
as professors, they must be aware that it is expected 
of them to act according to their profession. But 
while they are known as non-professors they are 
often exposed to conform to practices which their 
consciences condemn." 

After thus joining the church, and probably in 



16 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



consequence of the state of mind and feeling con- 
neted with that act, — he formed the habit, he says, 
of " examining religious subjects by writing short 
dissertations on different questions." He thus went 
through a long process of self-education ; not so 
much as is apparent, from views of ulterior advan- 
tage as simply from the activity of his own mind, 
and for the satisfaction of his thought. This he did 
in the midst of many hindrances. With an increas- 
ing family, and no means of subsistence but the 
labor of his own hands, he yet contrived to make 
time for the studies that interested him. In order to 
this it was necessary to subject himself to " exces- 
sive labor while at work ; " to snatch intervals as he 
could between school hours in the winter, on the 
sabbath, and in the night when others were sleep- 
ing. At this period and for many years after, he 
employed himself a portion of the time in shoe- 
making ; and much of his studying and writing was 
done while he sat at work upon his bench. At the 
end of the bench lay his lap-board, with his pen, 
ink and paper upon it. When thoughts came upon 
him clearly and were ready to be expressed, he 
laid down his shoe, placed the lap-board on his 
knees, and wrote. In this way, he informs us, he 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



17 



wrote " nearly half of all that he wrote on religious 
subjects, before he began to preach; — including 
the five sermons which formed his stock to begin 
with, and the first pamphlet which he ever pub- 
lished."* 

These habits of thought and study were gradu- 
ally preparing the way for a change of life. So 
inquisitive and active a mind could not be hidden. 
In the year 1785, being excited by a sermon of 
the Rev. John Murray on the " Origin of Evil," 
he ventured to send what he had written to the 
press in the shape of "Letter" to the Author. 
Of this act and its consequences he thus speaks in 
his autobiographical letters. 

u Whatever may now be thought by myself or 
others, as to the prudence of my publishing that 
work, or as to the correctness of its sentiments, 
that effort unquestionably prepared the way for my 
being approbated and received as a preacher of the 
gospel. I had abundant reason to think that the 
work was highly approved by a number of the most 



* He sometimes wrote in this manner at a much later period. 
I was born in 1793; and I distinctly remember seeing him 
thus employed. — Editor. 
2* 



IS 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



distinguished ministers of the Hopkinsian denomina- 
tion. Prior to publishing that pamphlet I had often 
thought of the ministry as a desirable work, but 
J had never thought of it with expectation that I 
should engage in it, till the subject was proposed 
by my friend Mr. Church.* I had submitted to 

*The Rev. Selden Church, — of whom Dr. Worcester in 
another place speaks in the following terms. " A little prior 
to this I had become acquainted with the Rev. Selden Church, 
the minister of Campton, a town adjoining to Plymouth. 
He was a man of learning and ingenuity, and, as I believe, a 
pious man, but remarkable for his modesty. He was an acute 
metaphysician, though not very popular as a preacher. He 
was a Hopkinsian in his theological opinions, but a man of 
genuine candor. I had been educated in a firm belief of the 
Westminster Catechism. Mr. Church exercised towards me 
the most kind and .condescending disposition, and seemed to 
take delight in doing all he could for the improvement of my 
mind. He lent me books and conversed with me till he 
shook my confidence in some of the articles of faith in the 
Westminster Catechism, and led me on by degrees till I 
adopted most of his Hopkinsian views. I have seldom been 
acquainted with a man of any denomination, who was less 
disused than he was to make his own creed a test in judging 
of the characters of those who differed from him. A censo- 
rious disposition seemed to have no place in his heart; and 
yet few were more capable than he was of vindicating his 
own opinions, or of exposing what he deemed errors in 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



19 



his inspection much of the little I had written on 
various subjects, and he was in the habit of using 
great freedom in his conversation with me. Near 
the close of one of our interviews, he put the 
question ; whether I did not think of becoming a 
minister ? The question was to me unexpected and 
surprising. I replied that I could not say I had 
never thought on the subject, but I had not thought 
of it as a thing attainable. He frankly expressed 
his opinion, that I might be more useful in that 
work than in any other. I stated what appeared to 
me very formidable objections. These he endea- 
vored to obviate, and assured me that in his opinion, 
there would be no difficulty in my obtaining the 
approbation of the ministers of the association to 
which he belonged, and he moreover advised me to 



others. In February, 1782, I removed from Plymouth to 
Thornton, where I was still nearer to my friend Mr. Church, 
than I was when I lived at Plymouth ; and our intimacy con- 
tinued and increased. The conversation and example of my 
friend were, I think, of great advantage to me, as to their 
influence in saving me from indulging or imbibing censorious 
feelings towards persons or sects of different opinions from 
my own. From that period to the present, I have regarded 
such feelings as unchristian, and as evincing a great want of 
humility and benevolence." 



20 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



take the subject into serious consideration. With 
this advice I complied, and was for many months in 
doubt as to the path of duty. I conversed with 
some other ministers, and private friends, who 
seemed to encourage the object. The more I 
reflected, the more I was inclined to undertake the 
work, if it could be done with a prospect of use- 
fulness. It was then and still is my opinion, 
that it is the duty of every Christian to seek for that 
situation in life in which he may probably be the 
most useful, or do the most good. After much 
reflection, I resolved to offer myself for examina- 
tion. [1786.] I readily obtained the approbation of 
ministers, and preached my first sermon at Bos- 
cawen in New Hampshire. From the time I began 
to preach, I was never refused the pulpit of any 
minister, either on account of my peculiar opinions, 
or on account of my want of a classical educa- 
tion, 

<c Though I have never doubted the friendship or 
sincerity of those ministers, who advised and en- 
couraged me to become a preacher ; yet I have 
often doubted whether I could have given similar 
advice under similar circumstances. My want of 
education was great ; I had a wife and three chil- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



21 



dren who depended for support on the fruit of my 
labors ; I was embarrassed with debt, by having 
purchased a farm at an unfavorable time during the 
war ; I had found no leisure for regular study ; and 
when or where I should obtain regular employment 
as a preacher, was altogether uncertain. When in 
later years I have serionsly reflected on these sev- 
eral facts, it has seemed to me wonderful that wise 
men should have advised me to make the attempt 
to become a minister, and also wonderful that I 
was induced to comply with their advice. But 
doubtless God had some wise design in so ordering 
the event." 

The preaching of Mr. Worcester appears to 
have been acceptable from the first, and so approved 
itself to Mr. Estabrook, the minister of Thornton, 
that he immediately recommended him to the people 
as his successor ; he being desirous to resign his 
charge. This he did in December, 1786 ; and 
Mr. Worcester, having spent the subsequent win- 
ter as usual, in teaching school, preached for some 
months in the following spring and summer as a 
candidate, and was ordained over the church in 
Thornton, on the 18th of the following October ; 
having been a preacher somewhat less than a year. 



22 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



He had been a resident in the town for five years 
and a half ; was well known and respected ; had 
served in many public trusts ; had been school- 
master, selectman, town clerk, justice of the peace, 
and representative to the General Court. The 
people now testified their confidence in him by 
making him their minister. And here he fulfilled 
a useful and harmonious ministry of twenty-three 
years' duration. " I have never found in any 
place," is the testimony of one who knew, " so 
much harmony and mutual confidence as did exist 
between him and his people." The town was 
small and humble, and the people few and poor ; 
they met for worship in a dwelling house or school- 
house.* His salary scantily supported life, being 

* In this place Dr. Ware has marked a Query in the mar- 
gin, and I suppose it relates to the places where the society 
met for worship. Concerning this matter I have inquired of 
my oldest brother, now residing in Thornton, and he has 
inquired of others. The answer is, that the meeting-house in 
which my father preached was built in 1790, or 1791 ; and 
that, previous to this, the meetings were held "in private 
houses and barns." The building erected in 1790 or 1791, 
would not in the present age be called a Meeting-house. It 
was never finished inside, but the outer covering was decent 
in its day. — Editor, 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



23 



two hundred dollars ; and as many could ill afford 
to pay their proportion of even that small sum, 
he was accustomed, as the time of collecting it 
drew nigh, to relinquish his claims by giving to the 
poorer among them receipts in full. The relief 
granted them in this way, sometimes amounted to a 
fourth or even a third part of his salary. He was 
thus made to continue still dependent for his sup- 
port in a great measure on the labor of his hands, 
partly on the farm, and partly in making shoes. 
But he was far from fancying this scantiness of pay 
and necessity of toil any exemption from the obliga- 
tion to do the utmost for his people. On the con- 
trary, he was ready to engage in extra labor for 
them ; and when it happened, for example, as it 
sometimes did, that the provision for a winter school 
failed, he threw open the doors of his own house, 
invited the children into his study, and gave them 
his time and care as assiduously as if he had been 
their regularly appointed teacher. 

Of the style and manner of his preaching, and 
the principles which he adopted in preparation for 
the pulpit, we have a brief account from his own 
pen. 

" In the early part of my ministry I was in the 



24 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

habit of preaching what would now be deemed long 
sermons. I was seldom less than three quarters of 
an hour in the deliver}' of a discourse, and often 
exceeded an hour. I spoke too with unusual rapid- 
ity at that period of my ministry. Of course it was 
considerable labor to prepare my sermons ; for I 
wrote them out entirely, and was much confined to 
my notes in speaking. I had, however, a strong 
desire to acquire the power and habit of speaking 
without notes. But when I had preached more 
than two years, I almost despaired of ever acquiring 
what I so ardently desired. At length, however, I 
determined to make an effort. I wrote out my 
sermon as usual, and committed it to memory. I 
took my notes with me, that I might look at them 
if necessary. But I named and repeated the text, 
and delivered the discourse without looking at my 
manuscript. My people then met in a dwelling 
house, and some of them could not see the preacher. 
I was informed that those parishioners who were so 
situated as not to see me, had not the least suspicion 
that I spoke without reading. It had always been 
my aim to deliver my discourses as though I was 
talking to the assembly, rather than reading to 
them. Of course little change appeared in my 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



25 



manner, when I began to speak memoriter. My 
success in the first attempt was greatly encouraging 
to my mind ; and I generally pursued the same 
method for several years — that is, writing my ser- 
mons, committing them to memory, and delivering 
them without looking at my notes. In this way I 
soon acquired a habit of speaking extempore as well 
memoriter. As my health became feeble, and as 
the labor of committing to memory was considera- 
ble, I found it necessary to change my course. I 
then adopted the method of writing what I could of 
my discourses, or so much as- health would allow, 
and then copying the heads of the discourse, and 
some short memoranda, for illustration ; these I 
made use of in delivery instead of committing the 
discourses to memory. For a time my health was 
so feeble, that I had to discontinue preaching ; and 
when I resumed it I had not health to write my 
discourses — ■ excepting some leading thoughts. At 
some periods of my ministry I must have resigned 
the office had I not been able to speak extempore. 
For the improvement of my own mind, I deemed it 
my duty to write as much as my health would per- 
mit, as I found that I could study best with a pen in 
my hand. I was far from the opinion that unwritten, 
3 



26 



MEMOIRS OP NOAH WORCESTER. 



or unpremeditated discourses are more pleasing to 
God or more useful to men than those which are 
well studied and written correctly. The divine aid 
is as necessary in writing as in speaking, and is as 
sure to be obtained if duly sought ; — and as wri- 
ting is one of the best methods of improving the 
mind, it surely ought not to be neglected under the 
pretence of exhibiting a more perfect trust in God 
for what we shall speak in public for the benefit of 
mankind." 

" I seldom preached what could be termed an 
abstruse discourse. I endeavored to accommodate 
my preaching to the capacities of my audience, and 
to avoid giving a controversial aspect to my ser- 
mons. Whatever doctrine I attempted to illus- 
trate, I endeavored to apply it to practical pur- 
poses. 

" The changes which from time to time occurred 
in my own views of doctrines, or of particular 
passages of Scripture, had a salutary effect on my 
own mind. It occasioned me to become more and 
more aware of my own liability to err ; to be less 
self-confident and dogmatical in stating my opinions ; 
to be more candid towards those who dissented from 
me, and to forbear any censorious denunciations 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



27 



against the people of other sects, as though they 
must be destitute of piety. In the whole course of 
my ministry, I think I never did in any instance 
reproach the people of any sect as destitute of piety 
or the Christian character ; and wholesale censures 
ever appeared to me antichristian, and more deserv- 
ing of censure than any mere error of opinion. I 
frankly expressed my own opinions, and often ex- 
posed what I believed to be errors ; but I seldom 
named any sect in my preaching as possessing 
erroneous opinions. I had satisfactory evidence to 
my own mind that there were good people in each 
of the sects with which I had been particularly 
acquainted, and I entertained a hope that it was so 
with all the sects of professed Christians. It was 
therefore very painful to me to sit and hear a 
preacher of my own denomination reproach the 
ministers or the people of another sect. Such con- 
duct seemed to me more like the sin of reviling, 
than like the love required by the gospel. Very 
early I became convinced that the opinions of peo- 
ple in general are the fruit of education ; and that 
those who have had the misfortune to be educated 
in error, are objects of pity rather than censure." 
His activity of mind was constant. He was a 



28 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



student and thinker. He entered with interest into 
the subjects which engaged public attention, and 
pursued with ardor and perseverance those which 
excited his own. He had the good habit of study- 
ing with pen in hand, writing his thoughts on the 
subjects which he would thoroughly investigate. It 
has beed said, in exaggerated terms, but with some- 
thing of plausible foundation, " that it was his prac- 
tice to write a book on whatever subject he was 
studying ; that in studying grammar he wrote a 
Grammar ; that he did the same in Arithmetic, 
&c." This constant use of the pen naturally led 
to frequent publication. He contributed during this 
period to the public journals. He wrote largely, 
as we learn from a memorandum found among his 
papers, for the Theological Magazine in New York. 
The series of papers entitled "The Variety," was 
from his pen. He published also in a periodical 
printed at Concord, and in the newspapers. The 
habit thus early formed of putting his thoughts on 
paper, followed him through life, and became a 
never-failing source of companionship and content, 
when sickness and solitude closed against him the 
common resources of life. 

A ministry thus past in diligent study and the 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



29 



usual routine of duty in a small and obscure parish, 
affords few materials for history. Important as the 
processes may be which are going on within, and inter- 
esting as they may be to the individual, they are 
interesting and known to others only in their subse- 
quent results. The events that we can relate dur- 
ing this period are few. One of the most important 
was the affliction which he suffered in the death of 
his wife, who was taken from him in November 
1797, after a happy marriage of eighteen years. 
Her death was occasioned by the accident of fall- 
ing from her horse. The people assembling for 
worship on thanksgiving day, were met by the 
tidings that their minister's wife was in the agonies 
of death. A deep impression seems to have been 
made by the event. The afflicted husband preached 
in his place on the sabbath following, from 2 Cor. 
i. 3, 4 ; and late in life declared, that he never 
" before or since witnessed a more solemn assembly 
than on that occasion." The tenderness with which 
the memory of this early object of his affections 
dwelt upon his mind, is manifested in a little poem 
in which he vented his feelings when more than 
seventy years of age. Mrs. Worcester seems to 
have been a woman well deserving to be loved and 
3* 



30' 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



remembered ; of quick parts and amiable disposi- 
tions ; "modest, prudent, industrious, truly pious, 
and highly esteemed by the people of the parish in 
which she lived ; as well as an exemplary wife and 
affectionate mother." Alas, how much illustrious 
worth in private places goes down unrecorded to 
the grave ! Let us, when we can, snatch from 
oblivion some of the humble names which were 
precious in their day, and cause them to live a little 
longer on the earth which they did something to 
adorn and bless.* 



*I cannot pass by this beautiful tribute to my mother's 
memory without thanking Dr. Ware for it. From all that I 
have ever been able to learn concerning her, 1 have good rea- 
son to suppose that she was a woman of very uncommon 
excellence of character. She died when I was a little less 
than four years and three months old. But I remember a few 
of her reproofs and chastisements, and many of her caresses; 
and her countenance and some articles of her dress are dis- 
tinctly remembered. Indeed, she has generally seemed pres- 
ent and visible to my mind when I have thought of her. 
Others who have died seem removed and invisible ; but my 
mother often seems actually present so that she can impart to 
my mind her own thoughts and feelings. 

In every age of the Christian church many have believed 
that their departed friends were ministering spirits attendant 
on them ; but I suppose it uncommon for any one to be dis- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



31 



Left with the charge of eight children, under 
circumstances of great trial and difficulty, it soon 
became imperative on the bereaved father to provide 
as he best might for their well-being. The sisters 
of his deceased wife joined with others in the 
advice, and he was married on the twenty-second of 
May, 1798, to Miss Hannah Huntington, a native 
of Norwich, Connecticut, then residing in Hanover, 
N. H. She lived to be the comforter of his later 
years, and died five years before him. u To her 
economy, industry, prudence, and unwearied solici- 
tude for his health and prosperity," he declared 
himself u much indebted, not only for his comfort, 
but /or his ability to bring up his children and to 
pursue his studies." 

In 1802, on the formation of the New Hampshire 



tinctly conscious of the presence of such friends, and of com- 
munications from them. But, thousands of times have I 
been blessed with my mother's smiles when she approved my 
thoughts and feelings ; and as many times, when she disap- 
proved them, have I distinctly heard her say, — " Samuel, do 
not do so." Especially during my childhood and youth, she 
seemed to be my guardian angel, and was often visible to me; 
and during fifty years I have had abundant reason to acknow- 
ledge her as my Faithful Mother. — Editor. 



32 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER, 



Missionary Society, Mr. Worcester was selected 
as its first missionary ; and in that character trav- 
elled and preached [in the northern towns of New 
Hampshire] during the autumn of that year, and 
during the summer of 1804, and perhaps at other 
times. 

In the latter part of the year 1806 he met with 
an accident, which was the occasion of much suffer- 
ing and continued infirmity. This was a partial 
rupture of the muscles from the tendons of the 
legs. For many months he was unable to walk or 
stand. The great change thus produced in his 
habits, brought on the dropsical tendencies, which 
did not leave him for three or four years. .He 
never recovered the use of his limbs so as to walk 
with ease. Prior to this he had been a man of 
uncommon muscular power. He was noted for his 
capacity of labor on a farm. Very few, it is said, 
were willing to compete with him. This vigor of 
his younger days, stands in melancholy contrast 
with the feebleness of his body after he had passed 
the prime of life. 

The time was now drawing near when he was to 
leave his home and the people to whom for twenty- 
three years he had ministered. It was but a small 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



33 



flock, and in humble circumstances. Notwithstand- 
ing their attachment to their minister, whose faith- 
ful services they appreciated, and whom they had 
seen rising in the midst of them, till he had be- 
come one of the most widely known and honored 
in the State, they yet found themselves unequal to 
his adequate support. When, therefore, in the fall 
of 1809, he received an invitation from Salisbury, 
to remove thither and take charge for a season of 
his brother's congregation, who was disabled by ill 
health, they consented to the dissolution of his 
connexion with the Society. His connexion with 
the Church was however retained, in the hope that 
he would return to them again. But this hope was 
vain. The progress of his studies had led to 
changes in his theological views, which were already 
preparing the way for a final and complete separa- 
tion. His people, however, notwithstanding these 
changes, were willing and desirous to retain him 
among them as their minister. " Though my change 
of sentiments relating to the Trinity was prior to 
my removal from Thornton, and well known to the 
people of my charge, yet this change was in no 
degree the occasion of my removal from that place. 
It occasioned no alienation on the part of my peo- 



34 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



pie. I lived with them in friendship to the last. I 
parted from them in friendship ; and with so much 
hope and expectation on both sides that I should 
return to them again, that the Church unanimously 
preferred that I should not be dismissed from them, 
although I had resigned my civil contract with the 
Town." 

By consent of all parties, he accordingly re- 
moved to Salisbury in February, 1S10, and con- 
tinued there as the assistant or substitute of his 
brother for about three years. 



CHAPTER III, 



Publication of Bible News with its attendant circumstances. 
He was invited to become the Editor of the Christian 
Disciple. 

We have now arrived at the great turning point 
in Mr. Worcester's life. At the time of his re- 
moval to Salisbury in February, 1810, he was 
engaged in the publication of a book which an- 
nounced the result of his studies and thoughts on 
the doctrine of the Trinity, and which became the 
occasion of his separation from the associates and 
scenes of his past life. This was no hasty or ill 
considered publication. It was the fruit of long, 
anxious, and deliberate inquiry. As long ago as the 
year 1796, in the " Theological Magazine " for Jan- 
uary and February of that year, he had published a 
series of questions, "respecting the Personality of the 
Redeemer." These questions, while they evinced 
a mind in a state of inquiry and asking for light, 



36 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



yet plainly indicated that it had become wholly 
alienated from the common doctrine of a tri-personal 
deity. From this time, the subject had been a 
topic of frequent conversation between Mr. Wor- 
cester and his brethren in the ministry ; to whom, 
both individually and at meetings of associations, 
he read papers expository of the views he was 
inclined to adopt. After so much and so protracted 
study and discussion, in the course of which his 
opinions went through considerable modifications 
before they assumed their final shape, and which 
occasioned no breach of fellowship with his breth- 
ren of the clergy, though some of them expressed 
great concern, — his mind being at length quite 
settled, he prepared and published his work. It 
was entitled " Bible News ; or Sacred Truths, 
relating to the Living God, his only Son, and Holy 
Spirit." * 



* This is the title of the second edition of the book; but 
the title of the first edition read thus : — 
BIBLE NEWS 
of the 

FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT, 
in 

A SERIES OF LETTERS. 

in four Parts. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER* 



37 



It happened, as perhaps was natural, that those 
who were willing to continue their accustomed 
fellowship with him so long as his heretical opinions 
were confined to Conversation and private discus- 
sion, felt themselves called upon to withdraw their 
countenance when he appeared as their public 
promulgator and defender. This seems to have 
been wholly unexpected to him, and was severely 
felt by him as a wound. His sensitive mind suffered 
keenly from the symptoms of coldness and aliena- 
tion by which the publication was followed. This 
the rather surprised and grieved him, because he had 
received the highest marks of confidence from his 
brethren long after his heresies had been distinctly 
known to them. " If at any time," he said, " they 
had cause to be offended on account of my senti- 
ments, they had it many years ago." It was eight 



1. On the Unity of God. 

2. On the Real Divinity and Glory of Christ. 

3. On the character of the Holy Spirit. 

4. An examination of difficult passages of Scripture. 

The whole addressed 
to a worthy minister of the Gospel, 

by Noah Worcester, A. M. 
Pastor of the church in Thornton. 

4 



33 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



years previous, that, with an express understanding 
of his heterodox tendency, he had been employed 
as first missionary of the New Hampshire Mission- 
ary Society, and had received a certificate so 
strongly recommendatory that he " doubted whether 
it were consistent with becoming modesty to show 
or read it, unless credentials were demanded of 
him." The discomfort which this occasioned him 
was great and lasting ; and he found himself imme- 
diately engaged in conflict, not only with his former 
associates, but with the public. The Hopkinton 
Association, of which he was a member, passed a 
vote * condemnatory of his book the following Au- 



*This vote was in these words : " Voted, that the doctrine 
contained in the above named publications, is, in our opinion, 
a departure from the pure faith of the Church of Christ ; 
tends to strengthen the enemies, and thereby greatly to injure 
the cause of Zion." 

Mr. Worcester published, " A respectful Address to the 
Trinitarian Clergy relating to their manner of treating oppo- 
nents." 12mo. pp. 50. " A Parable occasioned by a late 
portentous Phenomenon; by the Pilgrim Good-Intent." pp. 
24. "A Stranger's Apology for the General Associations." 
pp. 24. Also, several articles in the General Repository ; 
viz. ; Vol. i. p. 73; ii. 1 ; iii. 6. His brother Thomas like- 
wise published " A Defence of Truth and Character against 
Ecclesiastical Intolerance." pp. 24. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



39 



gust ; and in November was published " An Address 
to the Churches in connexion with the General 
Association of New Hampshire, on the subject of 
the Trinity." 



[Dr. Ware caused the following extracts to be 
copied, and added the remarks, but did not decide 
where they should be inserted. The Editor regards 
this as the proper place for them.] 



" Such was my confidence in the correctness of 
the doctrine of the Trinity, that for a considerable 
number of years, after difficulties and objections 
occurred, I employed all my powers to o'bviate the 
objections, to find support for the doctrine, and to 
invent some illustration which might show the doc- 
trine to be consistent with reason. Not far from 
the time that I was approbated for the ministry, I 
wrote something by way of illustration which I 
exhibited to my friend Mr. Church. I supposed it 
to be possible with God to form a being with three 
distinct heads and minds united to one body. This, 
I imagined might be an apt illustration of three 



40 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



persons in one being or one God. With this view 
of the subject, I rested pretty quietly for several 
years. But on a more careful attention to the lan- 
guage of Christ in relation to the Father and him- 
self, observing how constantly he represents himself 
as not God, but one sent by God ; dependent on 
God, obedient to God, doing the will of God, and 
not his own will, it became impossible for me to 
reconcile such language to the idea that he himself 
was the supreme Jehovah, or the same being as the 
Father. 

u A little before I was twenty-one years of age, 
while on a journey, I took up a little tract written 
by Mr. Emlyn. I read in it perhaps an hour. I 
thought he reasoned forcibly, but persuaded myself 
he did not satisfactorily set aside the argument from 
the words of Christ, £ I, and my Father are one.' 
For a number of years I relied more on that text to 
support the idea that Christ is God, than any other 
in the Bible. I do not recollect to have read any 
thing else against the doctrine of the Trinity after 
that time, till I happened to see the life of Dr. 
Watts ; except a note in a pamphlet, which con- 
tained forcible remarks, and a severe censure on 
the 4 damnatory clauses of the Athanasian creed,' 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



41 



as used by the church of England. That note I 
well recollect excited in my mind a kind of horror 
which occasioned me to lay the pamphlet aside, and 
to put it in such a place that it would not be likely 
to fall into the hands of others. 

" I think it was about the year 1S06 that I obtain- 
ed the reading of Watts's life accompanied by extracts 
from his writings, in the latter part of his life, on 
the Son and the Spirit of God. Soon after this I 
obtained the System of Divinity written by Dr. 
Hopkins. Of each of these Doctors I had a high 
opinion. I therefore resolved to compare their 
writings as they related to the doctrine of the Trin- 
ity. They were strongly opposed to each other in 
their views of the Son, and the Spirit. After ex- 
amining and comparing, I found myself unable to 
answer the arguments of Dr. Watts, but those of 
Dr. Hopkins I could answer to my own satisfaction. 
It appeared to me that Dr. Watts fairly proved 
that the Son of God was entirely dependent, that 
all his divinity consisted in the Father dwelling 
in him, and that the Spirit of God is not a dif- 
ferent person, but the active energy of the Father. 

"On becoming acquainted with the views of Dr. 
Watts, I found it possible for a man of acknow- 
4* 



42 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



ledged piety to be a dissenter from the contested 
doctrine. I had therefore less fear of the conse- 
quences of a thorough examination. If Watts 
could deny the independence of the Son of God 
and the personality of the Holy Spirit, a belief 
in the doctrine of three equal persons in the one 
God cannot be essential to piety and salvation. 
Such was my inference on finding so good a man 
as Watts among the dissenters from the doctrine. 
Prior to this my inquiries were very far from being 
impartial or free. For I was not only biassed by 
prepossessions in favor of the doctrine, but fettered 
by fears that inquiry might land me on ground 
that might endanger my Christian character, and 
my future happiness. Being in a great measure 
freed from these fetters, I pursued my inquiries 
with greater freedom and more satisfaction to my 
own mind. I had, however, no writings to aid me 
in my inquiries written by any dissenter from the 
doctrine, except what I found in the Life of Watts, 
till after I had published Bible News. 

" But prior to this I had found, to my own satis- 
faction, that neither Moses and the Prophets, nor 
Christ and his apostles, had any belief in the doc- 
trine of the " Three one God ; " that they were 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



43 



all Unitarian instructors, that is, that they all rep- 
resented Jehovah as One and not as Three. In all 
my inquiries relating to the Trinity, prior to pub- 
lishing, I had no conversation or correspondence 
with any dissenter from the doctrine. The reitera- 
ted reproaches and denunciations against all minis- 
ters of this description, had so prepossessed my own 
mind against them, that I had no wish to consult 
them. During these inquiries, after writing much, 
but prior to publishing, I had occasion to pass 
through Boston, on my way from Connecticut to 
New Hampshire. I indeed stopped in the town to 
visit others, but I avoided making myself known to 
any minister of the town. This course was adopted 
from an unwillingness to have any intercourse with 
Unitarian ministers while engaged in such an inquiry. 
Such unfortunate prejudices would probably have 
retained their hold on my mind longer than they 
did, had I not been taught by experience, that 
little reliance is to be placed on representations 
which party passions give of those who avow a 
dissent from popular doctrines. This lesson I was 
soon taught, after my own dissent from the doctrine 
of the Trinity had been published. When I saw a 
number of my former friends and brethren in the 



44 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



ministry disposed to treat me in an unbrotherly 
manner, and to adopt measures which tended di- 
rectly to the ruin of my character and usefulness, 
without any cause known to me, except the avowed 
change in my opinions, it was perhaps natural for 
me to infer that many of the reproaches cast on 
other dissenters from the doctrine, originated in the 
same unkind and misguided zeal; — a zeal which 
violates the most important precepts of the gospels 
in support of a doctrine which no mortal under- 
stands." 

" You will naturally expect that I shall give some 
account relating to the change in my opinions on the 
doctrine of the Trinity. In the book entitled c Bible 
News,' and in the 4 Respectful Address to the 
Trinitarian Clergy,' I gave some account of what 
had been the operations of my mind, and the occa- 
sion of the change which had occurred. I have 
therefore the less to say on that subject in these 
letters. 

" It may be proper here to remark that I have no 
recollection of knowing that my integrity, piety or 
Christian character was ever called in question from 
the time I made a public profession of religion, till 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



45 



after I published my dissent from the doctrine of 
the Trinity. Even after it was known to my 
brethren in the ministry that I had dissented from 
that doctrine, they still treated me as a brother 
till after my first book on that subject was pub- 
lished. 

" After the New Hampshire Missionary Society 
was organized, I became a member, and was ap- 
pointed as their first missionary. To induce me to 
accept that appointment, I was told by the first 
trustee that it was the wish of the Board, that I 
should go at that time, because, in their view, it 
was very desirable that their first missionary should 
be one whose character and talents would make a 
favorable impression in regard to the society and 
its objects. He also mentioned that it was thought 
my ability to preach without notes would be much 
in favor of the mission in the region to which they 
wished me to go. 

u When I met the Trustees to receive my instruc- 
tions and recommendation, another of the Board 
informed me, privately, that their regulations re- 
quired that I should be examined. But he apolo- 
gized for their pretending to examine one in whom 
they had such entire confidence. He said, however, 



46 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



that it was necessary to conform to the regulations, 
and the precedent might be very useful on future 
occasions, as they might not in all instances be so 
satisfied prior to examination ; but if I consented 
to be examined, others would not object. I freely 
consented to the proposed examination. I think 
all the Trustees, except one, were aware that I had 
then adopted Watts's views of the doctrine of the 
Trinity. That subject, however, was soon intro- 
duced, and occasioned some discussion. I frankly 
avowed my belief, and told them if this was any 
objection, I was willing to relinquish the mission. 
After all that passed on the subject, they gave me 
a recommendation as ample as any modest man 
would have desired. 

" While I was writing the work which was after- 
wards published, a considerable part of it was read 
to three different Associations of ministers. Still 
I had no evidence that any individual of either was 
at all disposed to withdraw from me the hand of 
fellowship. But after the book was published, I 
experienced severe trials from several brethren, 
who had long been esteemed by me as cordial 
friends. 

" How far I was honest in my inquiries must be 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



47 



referred to the searcher of hearts. That I was 
unbiassed while pursuing the inquiry, it would be 
folly in me to pretend. For all prejudices resulting 
from education, from regard to worldly interest, and 
to my own reputation, were thrown into the scale in 
favor of the doctrine. I had been educated in the 
belief, that the doctrine was true and essential, and 
I was well aware that my friends in the ministry 
were disposed to doubt the piety of dissenters from 
the doctrine. I had heard so much of the heresy, 
infidelity, and irreligion of those who had departed 
from the doctrine, that the thought of becoming of 
that class of ministers often rilled my mind with 
dismay. . But notwithstanding all these prepossessing 
and repulsive circumstances to bias my mind, such 
was the force of scripture language, and particularly 
the language of Christ himself, that I could not 
resist it ; but was led by it first to doubt the truth 
of the popular doctrine, and finally to dissent from 
it, at the risk of my character and worldly pros- 
pects. I have not, however, mentioned these facts 
as any proof of the correctness of the opinion 
which I formed ; but I think that Christian candor 
might admit them as some proof of my sincerity, 
and that I was not influenced in my decision by self- 
ish considerations. 



48 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



" I am, however, aware that some suggested a 
a suspicion that I was influenced by a hope that I 
should become the head of an anti-trinitarian sect in 
this country. It might perhaps be well for such 
persons to examine their own hearts, to ascertain 
whether the suspicion arose from that love which 
c hopeth all things, thinketh no evil, and seeketh 
not her own.' I may have given more reason 
than I am aware of for others to suspect that I have 
been ambitious to become the demagogue of a 
party ; but so far as self-knowledge extends I may 
say with truth that such a motive had no place in 
directing my inquiries or my decisions. I was not 
so perfectly ignorant of the state of things in our 
country as not to anticipate painful consequences to 
myself, should my inquiries result in a conviction 
that the popular doctrine was untrue. I knew too 
well what was said of others, to expect that I might 
renounce the doctrine of the Trinity and still escape 
reproach." 

What is especially interesting and instructive in 
these statements, is the evidence they afford of a 
devout and inquisitive mind, in the solitude of its 
own thoughts, without guidance, teaching, or advice 
from any Master in Israel, but dependent alone on 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



49 



its Bible and its prayers, — finding its way to inter- 
pretations of revelation widely different from those 
usually admitted in the Church ; — and this in the 
midst of misgivings and alarms ; in spite of preju- 
dices against these interpretations so inwrought and 
violent as to render them odious, and to make all 
their advocates objects of distrust and suspicion ; — 
in spite of the knowledge that to avow 7 them, was 
to encounter obloquy, desertion, loss of influence, 
and probably exile. How interesting to look back 
to that lowly retreat, and see in imagination that 
fervent conscientious inquirer, fighting against the 
opposition of his own mind, the sacred associations 
of the past, the threatening evils of the future, the 
fears of friends, the anathema of the church, — yet 
steadily, resolutely giving heed to the scripture 
alone, and following where it leads in opposition to 
all the jarring voices of commentators and councils. 
The controversy in his own mind was not awakened 
from abroad ; it w 7 as not carried on by help of the 
discussions that w T ere going on in the community ; 
it was finished with himself before it began with the 
country ; he awakened the discussion, not the dis- 
cussion him ; and he came out from this solitary 
process — unscathed by the war that had been 
5 



50 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

going on within — to give the world a new proof 
that it is possible to speak the truth in love in 
spite of the most adverse circumstances, and to 
retain the devotedness and sweetness of the Chris- 
tian spirit though departing from the orthodoxy of 
the Christian faith. 

As an argument for the correctness of the unita- 
rian construction of Christian doctrine, I would not 
make too much of this, or any similar example ; — 
as undoubtedly has been sometimes done; — for 
instances very nearly if not quite parallel have 
occurred in the passing of members of any one 
community of Christians to any other ; and any 
church might be proved the true church, and any 
church false, if such reasoning were allowed. The 
true inference to be drawn, and that a most mighty 
and delightful one, is, that the essential vitality of 
Christianity does not lie in certain doctrinal dogmas; 
but that every faithful, devout, conscientious inquir- 
er finds it, whatever may be the form in which his 
notions of certain dogmas rest The great Father 
seems intentionally to show his children how worth- 
less in his eyes are their notions and speculations on 
all those inaccessible subjects, by allowing their minds 
under the brightest illumination, and after the most 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



51 



earnest, laborious investigation, to find peace in the 
most opposite results. What a significant rebuke 
does this plain fact give to the arrogance of sectari- 
anism ! 

It was with the profound consciousness of truth 
like this, that Mr. Worcester came out from his 
anxiety, his studies, his controversies, and his sor- 
rows, with a liberality as wide as Christendom, and 
a modesty as gentle as his love of truth was strong, 
confident but not arrogant, and persuaded that 
Love, the Christian spirit, is better than the recep- 
tion of doctrinal truth, his life became hence- 
forth one living and perpetual plea for charity, and 
one uninterrupted protestation against any form of ill 
will, oppression, and dogmatism. 

The public attention was thus effectually drawn 
to the subject. In Boston especially, and its vicin- 
ity, the state of opinion was such as to cause this 
transaction to be regarded with great interest. The 
progress of opinion, which had there been long silent 
and unobserved, was now coming into greater activity 
and manifesting itself in outward expressions. There 
were already symptoms of an approaching contro- 
versy. The appearance at this moment of a bold 
and free-minded advocate of liberty and truth, burst- 



52 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



ing away by solitary study and the unaided action of 
his own mind from the old prescriptive theology, 
was well adapted to make a sensation. Mr. Wor- 
cester became an object of much interest and 
sympathy, and his cause was made identical with 
the great movement against ecclesiastical authority. 
A new journal adapted to the condition of the times 
was about being established. In looking round for 
some one to take the editorial charge of it, who 
would unite talent in writing, and skill in reasoning, 
with christian gentleness of manner and a catholic 
largeness of spirit, the projectors of the work turned 
their eyes to Mr. Worcester, and summoned him from 
his retirement. He was personally unknown to them 
and they to him. But they were drawn toward him 
by sympathy with his admirable spirit of freedom and 
firmness united with liberality and devotion, and 
could not doubt that it was he to whom the new 
enterprise should be given. In the letter addressed 
to him in opening the correspondence, January, 
11, 1313. They said ; — 

" It has long been the opinion of many friends 
of Scriptural truth, that we need a periodical pub- 
lication, which shall be adapted to the great mass 
of Christians, and the object of which shall be to 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 53 

increase their zeal and seriousness, to direct their 
attention to the Scriptures, to furnish them with 
that degree of Biblical criticism which they are 
capable of receiving and applying, to illustrate 
obscure and perverted passages, and, though last 
not least, to teach them their Christian rights, to 
awaken a jealous attachment to Christian liberty, to 
show them the ground of Congregationalism, and to 
guard them against every enemy, who would bring 
them into bondage. Our conviction of the impor- 
tance of this work has been strengthened by the 
appearance of a publication in the Panoplist recom- 
mending the immediate erection of ecclesiastical 
tribunals. * * * 

" You may expect aid from gentlemen in this 
town and vicinity. With the sentiments of these 
gentlemen you are generally acquainted. They are 
not precisely agreed as to the person or dignity of 
Christ, nor do they wish that the work should be 
devoted to any particular view of that subject. 
Whilst they are willing to admit the arguments of 
all sects, they wish chiefly to exhibit those relations 
and offices of Christ which Christians generally 
acknowledge, and to promote a spirit of forbear- 
5* 



54 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



ance and charity, among those who differ on this 
and other difficult subjects. As to the peculiarities 
of Calvinism, they are opposed to them, without 
censuring those who embrace them. They are 
opposed to that system, particularly as it prostrates 
the independence of the mind, as it teaches men 
that they are naturally incapable of discerning relig- 
ious truth, as it thus generates a timid and super- 
stitious dependence on those who profess to have 
been brought from darkness into light, as it so 
commonly infuses into its professors a censorious, 
uncharitable spirit. You will do us the justice to 
believe, that in this business we are not actuated by 
the spirit of partisans. We have long given proof 
of our aversion to contention by bearing patiently 
and silently misrepresentations of our characters and 
sentiments. We have no desire to diffuse any re- 
ligious peculiarities. Our great desire is to preserve 
our fellow Christians from the systematic and un- 
wearied efforts which are making to impose on 
them a human creed, and to infuse into them angry 
and bitter feelings towards those who differ from 
them. Our great desire is, to direct men to the 
word of God, and to awaken in those Christians 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



55 



who receive this as their only standard, a more 
devout, serious, earnest and affectionate piety than 
they often discover:" 

We must copy here at length Dr. Worcester's 
account of the transaction, which was to make so 
entire a change in his life. 

u At the very time my brother seemed to be 
regaining his health, so that there was a probability 
that he might resume his labors, I received an invi- 
tation, as you well know, from clergymen whom I 
had never seen, and with whom I had no prior cor- 
respondence, to remove to the vicinity of Boston, 
and become the Editor of the Christian Disciple — 
a periodical work then about to be established. I 
could not but regard in this occurrence, the hand 
of a merciful God. The prejudices of many of the 
clergy of New Hampshire had become so much 
excited on account of my change of opinion, that I 
deemed it very improbable that I should find any em- 
ployment in that State as a preacher, should I leave 
Salisbury. Indeed I had thought it probable that I 
should be obliged to leave the State and go to Canada 
for employment. The invitation therefore to become 
the editor of the Christian Disciple I accepted with 
feelings of gratitude to my divine Benefactor, and 



56 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



to the four strangers # who thus provided, for me 
an Asylum. It was not, however, without deep 
concern that I accepted the invitation. I had 
serious doubts with respect to my qualifications for 
the work proposed. Not only so, my prejudices, 
which had arisen from clamor and reproach against 
the persons who gave the invitation, were such, that 
I had strong fears that they would not be found by 
me persons in whose society I might find satisfac- 
tion. Hence, prior to removing, I deemed it pru- 
dent to visit them and become personally acquainted 
with them. I did so, and found them, as I thought, 
very different characters from such as had been 
described to me. I had indeed reason to suppose 
that on various subjects their opinions were different 
from mine. Of this difference they were not igno- 
rant. But they appeared to me not only men of 
intelligence, but of candor and piety — not disposed 
to make our differences of opinion an occasion of 
alienation. 

c< In May, 1S13, I removed with my family to 
Brighton, and conducted the Christian Disciple to 



*Dr. Charming, Dr. Lowell, Dr. Tuckerman, and Rev. S. 
C. Thacher. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



57 



the close of 1818. I then relinquished it on ac- 
count of debility. I never regretted, and never 
thought I had any reason to regret my connexion 
with the four clergymen who invited me to this 
vicinity. Several years before I gave up the work 
a fifth gentleman became associated as one of the 
proprietors, whose benevolence to me will, I hope, 
be rewarded by God.* All my associates were 
to me both friends in need and friends indeed ; and 
I cannot but regard them as the friends of God, and 
of the best interests of mankind." 



*This passage relates to the Rev. Francis Parkman, D. D. 
— Editor. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Removal to Brighton, Mass. Labors as Editor of the Chris- 
tian Disciple. His preparation for the works for which 
he is most distinguished; his Solemn Review of the Cus- 
tom of War, and the Friend of Peace. Character of 
these works. 

In May, 1813, as we have seen, Mr. Worcester 
took up his abode at Brighton. No change could 
well be greater than that which now took place in 
the circumstances of his being. His whole position 
in society, his public and his private relations, were 
altered. A new home, and a wholly new circle of 
associates, friends, and pursuits awaited him. His 
mind being now settled on the great subject which 
for so many years had exercised and agitated it ; 
being withdrawn from the scenes of excitement and 
controversy which had grown out of his publication ; 
he was free to engage without restraint in whatever 
other subjects of truth or duty should present them- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



59 



selves. It did not suit the character of his mind to 
be without some subject of absorbing interest ; and 
he soon found himself taken up with two trains of 
thought, which for some time gave direction to his 
life. The first of these was favored by his duties 
as editor of the Christian Disciple. That journal 
not being designed for doctrinal and controversial 
discussion, nor for theological learning, but for the 
instruction of the people in their religious rights and 
the promotion of spiritual and moral improvement, 
he gave himself freely to the advocacy of the great 
duty of Liberty and Charity ; making that work 
distinguished for its unqualified devotedness to the 
individual rights of opinion, and the sacred duty of 
a liberal regard to them in other men. His own 
experience had led him to think much of the evils 
of controversy, and of the christian duties of for- 
bearance, gentleness, candor and charity toward 
those who differ in religious opinion. Bigotry and 
censoriousness seemed to him among the greatest 
crimes of the christian church. Every thing that 
he henceforth wrote bore testimony to his deep 
feeling on this subject ; and till his writings and his 
life became one continual plea for liberality and love. 
The " Disciple," as it came forth with its monthly 



60 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



burden to the church, might remind one of the aged 
disciple John, who is said from sabbath to sabbath 
to have risen before the congregation to repeat 
the affectionate exhortation, cc Little children, love 
one another." 

The other subject was not unconnected with 
this : that of War and Peace. It had enlisted his 
earnest attention before leaving New Hampshire ; it 
soon grew to be the chief topic of his life ; by 
which he was to earn the title of a Benefactor of 
Mankind, and be remembered and honored to the 
latest age. 

His own statement we copy here from his auto- 
biographical letters, written in 1823. 

" When a child I was delighted with military 
exercises and parade. While very young I was 
chosen captain of a company of boys. For several 
years prior to the Revolution there was considerable 
talk of a war between Great Britain and the people 
of this country. Before this I had heard of the 
Quaker opinion, and this was perhaps all I had 
ever heard against war. But when the prospect of 
a war with Britain had become a topic of conver- 
sation, I had opportunity to hear the Quaker opinion 
not only expressed but vindicated by a neighbor, 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



01 



who was educated among Quakers, and had imbibed 
their views of war. He, however, was a Baptist 
preacher. Though I listened to his arguments, I 
was little influenced by them, for my father and a 
multitude of others were on the other side of the 
question. So little was I influenced by arguments 
against war, that on the next evening after the war 
commenced, I enlisted voluntarily as a soldier. 
During the two campaigns that I was in the army, I 
do not recollect that I had any scruples of con- 
science in regard to the lawfulness of the business in 
which I was engaged ; yet I was not pleased with 
the life of a soldier. 

" Before the close of the war I was married, and 
settled in Plymouth, N. H. Soon after this the 
Rev. E. Estabrook was ordained in Thornton. 
He was known as a minister who denied the law- 
fulness of war. In a short time after his settlement, 
I had a wish to remove to Thornton, but I had 
some scruples in regard to sitting under the ministry 
of one, who in regard to war held the Quaker 
principle to be correct. But as he was deemed a 
pious man, and was prudent in regard to urging his 
views of war, seldom mentioning them in his dis- 
courses, I concluded to become one of his parish- 
6 



62 



MEMOIRS OP NOAH WORCESTER. 



ioners. Soon after I removed to Thornton I was 
requested to serve the town as a selectman. The 
town was called on for a soldier to serve during the 
war ; and my office required me to hire the soldier. 
This I did, without any scruple as to the lawfulness 
of the service. This was near the close of the 
war, and it was perhaps the last service I was 
called to perform in favor of the Revolutionary 
struggle. About the time the war closed, Mr. 
Estabrook put into my hands a book to read in 
which the principles of war were examined in re- 
spect to their agreement or disagreement with the 
precepts of the gospel. I have forgotten the name 
of the author, if it was in the book. The work 
had a powerful influence on my mind, and though I 
did not feel convinced that defensive war was un- 
lawful, my views and feelings on the subject of war 
became greatly changed, even in regard to trainings 
and every thing of a military character. I could 
no longer take pleasure in any thing of a military 
nature. I had not, however, thoroughly examined 
the subject, and I still retained the idea that defen- 
sive war and preparations for war were neces- 
sary evils, and to be supported as means for 
preventing greater evils. I did not then understand 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



63 



that all wars are conducted in an offensive as well 
defensive manner, nor that the spirit of all war is 
repugnant to the spirit required by the gospel, and 
exemplified by the Prince of Peace. My ideas on 
the subject were dark, perplexed and confused. 
After I became the minister of Thornton, I was reg- 
ularly requested to pray with the military company 
when they met for training. This duty I performed 
under the delusive impression, that being prepared 
for war was the surest means of preventing war . 
This was then the popular doctrine, in which I 
acquiesced. But in praying on such occasions I 
ever felt deeply, that the business of war was hor- 
rible, and opposed to my own feelings as a christian, 
and to the spirit which, as a minister, I constantly 
inculcated. I used to pray that the business on 
which we met, might be the means of preventing 
the necessity of our ever again having occasion to 
resort to the use of military weapons. I had another 
motive for attending the trainings. My people 
appeared to have a sincere affection for me ; and I 
had a hope that my presence and my prayers might 
be the means of preventing disorderly and vicious 
conduct. But long before I left Thornton, I be- 
came fully convinced that the military trainings and 



64 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER, 



reviews were not merely useless, but exceedingly 
pernicious in regard to the morals of the commu- 
nity ; that they were in fact means of danger, and 
not of safety to the country. This opinion I freely 
expressed to the Colonel of the regiment, who was 
also a member of the State legislature. As a sub- 
stitute for trainings I then proposed nearly the same 
plan which was since proposed by General Calvin 
Jones of North Carolina, on resigning his office of 
Major General of the militia. 

u The war of 1812, between Great Britain and the 
United States, was the occasion of perfecting the 
revolution in my mind in regard to the lawfulness of 
war. I was residing in Salisbury when war was de- 
clared. I had been for several months very attentive 
to the measures which were pursued to exasperate the 
minds of the people, and prepare them for the horrid 
conflict. I was indeed well satisfied that our coun- 
try had suffered injuries from Great Britain, by the 
impressment of our seamen, and by spoliations 
under the Orders in Council. But I was also satis- 
fied that these evils were exaggerated by the repre- 
sentations of our people ; and that the impressment 
of our seamen was not authorized by the government 
of Great Britain. I regarded the war as having 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



65 



resulted from our own party contests, and the indul- 
gence of vile passions; — and, on the whole, as 
unnecessary and unjust. Soon after the war com- 
menced, I preached two sermons with a view to 
lead my hearers to proper reflections on the dan- 
ger of indulging party passions, and the practice 
of reviling. In these I gave no opinion on the 
justice of the war. The discourses were published 
and were applauded by the people of both parties. 
On the day appointed by Mr. Madison for national 
fasting, I delivered a discourse on the pacific con- 
duct of Abraham and Lot to avoid hostilities be- 
tween their herdsmen. The President had called 
on ministers of the gospel to pray for the success 
of our arms. This I could not do ; and I 
deemed it my duty to assign my reasons for the 
neglect. This part of my duty I endeavored to 
perform in a manner both impressive and inoffen- 
sive. This discourse was also published, but it 
gave offence to the advocates for the war. Though 
I could not pray for the success of our arms, I 
could pray that the lives of the soldiers on both 
sides might be preserved, and such were my pray- 
ers during the war. 
" In 1813, I removed from Salisbury to Brighton. 
6* 



66 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



There I had much opportunity to become acquainted 
with the baneful influence of the war spirit, and 
with the progress of the war. The more I ob- 
served and reflected, the more I was shocked with 
the barbarity of war and its demoralizing influence, 
its contrariety to Christianity, and every benevolent 
feeling. In 1814 my mind became so impressed 
with the subject, that I resolved to maket he 
inquiry whether the custom of war was not the ef- 
fect of popular delusion. When I began to write 
I aimed at nothing more than an article for the 
Christian Disciple, of which I was then the Editor. 
But as I wrote, my mind became more and more 
interested, and instead of a short article for a peri- 
odical work, I wrote the Solemn Review of the 
Custom of War, which was published in Decem- 
ber, I think the very week that the Treaty of Peace 
was signed at Ghent. 

u While writing that part I became thoroughly 
convinced that war is the effect of delusion, totally 
repugnant to the Christian religion, and wholly 
unnecessary except as it becomes necessary from 
delusion and the basest passions of human nature ; 
that when it is waged for a redress of wrongs, its 
tendency is to multiply wrongs a hundred fold ; and 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



67 



that in principle, the best we can make of it, is 
doing evil that good may come. It is now more 
than eight years since I began to write the Solemn 
Review ; and I believe I may say with truth, that 
when awake, the subject of war has not been ab- 
sent from my mind an hour at a time in the whole 
course of the eight years. On the most thorough 
examination I am firmly of the opinion, that there 
has never been any error among Christians more 
grossly anti-christian, or more fatal in its effects, than 
those which are the support of war ; that what are 
called preparations for war are the natural means of 
producing the calamity, — and that the popular be- 
lief, that being prepared for war is the means for 
avoiding it, has been contradicted by the experience 
of more than a thousand years among the nations of 
Christendom. In asserting my present views, I have 
this consolation, that the more there are who embrace 
them, the fewer there will be to encourage and pro- 
mote the horrid practice, and the more there will be 
to employ their influence for its abolition ; and that if 
all men would cordially adopt such views, war would 
be rendered impossible. 

" Though I frankly express my own views of war 
and my perfect abhorrence of the military system 



68 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



of national rapine and murder, as perfectly needless, 
unjust, and opposed to the spirit of the gospel, I 
have no doubt that many men, better than myself 
have been of a different opinion. I cannot, howev- 
er, but doubt whether they would or could have long 
continued of the opposite opinion, had they be- 
stowed half as much attention on the subject as I 
have done, or as they have probably bestowed on 
other subjects of far less importance. I suspect 
that no one thing in the history of Christians will 
cause greater astonishment to posterity in a more 
enlightened age of the world, than the fact, that 
professed ministers of the Gospel throughout Christ- 
endom have been so generally advocates and abet- 
tors of war ; and that while Christians of different 
sects have been alienated from each other, and have 
spent much of their time in contending about unin- 
telligible and unimportant dogmas, they could unite 
in the atrocious work of shedding human blood in 
the political contests of nations. Private or indi- 
vidual murders are justly esteemed and punished as 
among the grossest of human crimes ; yet whole- 
sale murder for the settlement of trivial national 
controversies has been licensed, sanctioned, and 
even commended by the rulers of Christian nations, 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



69 



and applauded by the ministers of the Christian 
religion of almost every sect in Christendom ! 

"Notwithstanding all my zeal in the cause of 
peace, and the perfect conviction of mind that the 
war spirit and all the forms of national hostilities are 
in direct opposition to the precepts and the spirit of 
the gospel, I have never felt myself authorized to 
make my own views of the subject a test of the 
Christian character, or to call in question the piety 
of my fellow Christians who have been advocates 
and promoters of war. But I can say with the 
greatest truth, that I am unacquainted with any 
errors which have been adopted by any sect of 
Christians, which appear to me more evidential of a 
depraved heart than those which sanction war, and 
dispose men to glory in slaughtering one another. 
Should we call to mind any one of the supposed 
essential doctrines of any sect of Christians in New 
England, we might ask with confidence, what is the 
evil of denying or disbelieving that doctrine, when 
compared with the evil of believing that it is con- 
sistent with the spirit and precepts of the gospel for 
Christians of different nations to engage in war — 
to meet in the field of battle and destroy one anoth- 
er, by hundreds, by thousands, and by tens of 



70 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

thousands ?, If a man of apparently good character 
avows a belief that human infants are not by nature 
totally sinful, there are a multitude of churches who 
would refuse to admit him to their fellowship. Yet 
another man who believes in the doctrine of total 
sinfulness by nature, may perhaps be admitted to 
their communion, with his hands wreaking with the 
blood of many brethren whom he has wantonly slain 
in the games of war, and this too while he justifies 
those fashionable murders ! " 

The sermon on the National Fast in August, 
1812, mentioned in the passage just quoted, is a 
discourse of great clearness and power ; a worthy 
beginning of the work to which its author afterward 
devoted so large a portion of his life. It is partly 
occupied in showing that the war then recently 
declared was without sufficient justification, and so 
far might be thought open to the charge of having 
a party design. But it was written in any but a 
partizan spirit ; with great solemnity and modera- 
tion ; and states fundamental principles which are 
independent of all temporary circumstances. 

The publication of this sermon may be regarded 
as the first act in that powerful operation which was 
henceforth to constitute the main object of his life. 



MEMOIRS OP NOAH WORCESTER. 



71 



Without losing his interest in other subjects, he 
consecrated himself to this. After being for a 
brief season diverted from it by the care of the 
Christian Disciple and other unwonted occupations 
in a new abode, he in 1814 gave vent to his whole 
soul in that remarkable tract, a A Solemn Re- 
view of the Custom of War;" one of the 
most successful and efficient pamphlets of any peri- 
od. It has been translated into many languages, 
and circulated extensively through the world. It is 
one of the chief instruments by which the opinions 
of society have been affected within the present 
century. The season of its publication was favor- 
able ; the world was wearied with battles and longed 
for rest. It found a response in the heart of the 
community, and many able men were ready to 
repeat and enforce its doctrines. It was followed 
by the formation of The Massachusetts Peace 
Society on the 28th of December, 1815,' and by 
the publication of " The Friend of Peace," 
which began in 181 9, * and was continued in quar- 
terly numbers for ten years ; being almost entirely 



* He relinquished the Christian Disciple at the close of 
1818. Editor. 



\ 

72 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER* 

written by himself. This must be looked upon as 
a very remarkable work. One is surprised at the 
fertility of resources and the ingenuity of illustra- 
tion by which he was able for so long a time to 
vary his expositions of a subject which seems to 
most persons easily exhausted. To his wakeful 
mind every thing that occurred and every thing that 
he read offered him materials, he appeared to see 
nothing which had not a bearing on this one topic ; 
and his book became a boundless repository of 
curious, entertaining, striking extracts from writers 
of all sorts and the history of all times, displaying 
the criminality and folly of war, and the beauty and 
efficacy of the principles of peace. He threw his 
reasonings and speculations into the most various 
forms ; dialogue, epistle, parable, and verse ; some- 
times perhaps languid, often diffuse, but always 
glowing with the truest spirit of humanity and faith ; 
never extravagant, never uncharitable, and often 
enlivened with a quaint shrewdness of remark and 
a certain gentle humor and semi-sarcastic satire, 
which just opened upon the reader like the quiet 
heat-lightning of a summer day's twilight, and then 
disappeared. If to some persons who had less 
enthusiasm for the subject than himself, he seemed 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



73 



at last to have written out, it is what might have 
been reasonably anticipated ; but it does not cease 
to be a matter of astonishment, that he sustained 
himself so admirably for so long a time, and created 
four volumes so affluent and powerful as The 
Friend of Peace. 

It is to his services in this cause of the highest 
Philanthropy, that Dr. Worcester owes his chief 
distinction, and must forever lay solid claim to the 
reverence and gratitude of mankind. His inde- 
pendent and true-hearted pursuit of truth, his most 
humble and gentle advocacy of it in catholic writing 
and holy living, give him place among the eminent 
disciples of Christ. His labors for peace elevate 
him to a rank among his Master's most efficient 
co-workers, and the substantial Benefactors of his 
race. Here he did something toward a palpable 
advancement of Christianity and Civilization. He 
carried the world perceptibly forward. He opened 
a new era in its history. By commencing a syste- 
matic enterprise against war, he set in motion an 
agency which unites itself with the multitude of 
other agencies now carrying forward the progress of 
man, and which are so knit together and so reci- 
procally strengthen each other, that they make sure 
7 



74 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



the conquest of the world. What other Christians 
had eloquently plead for, but hardly dared to hope, 
he has made practicable. And we already witness 
the auspicious result of his efforts. The extensive 
change which has taken place in the sentiments of 
men respecting war ; the disapprobation expressed 
in so strong terms by leading statesmen,, and the 
diminished honor paid to military greatness by men 
of letters ; the readiness with which opportunities 
of battle are now shunned, when formerly they 
would have been sought ; and in which mediation 
has been accepted for peace sake, where nations 
would once have rushed to blood ; the universal 
tone of the religious press and the pulpit, so frequent 
and loud, which formerly spoke so rarely, and so 
often in the tone of the common world ; and not 
least, the express and active combination of Peace 
Societies, speaking every where through Christ- 
endom by their agents and their books ; all these 
and other signs which display the coming on of a 
new day for man, — bear witness to the value of 
his labors, and attest his claim to be crowned 
among the substantial Benefactors of earth. Other 
causes have operated widely, powerfully, profound- 
ly ; the religious, political, commercial condition of 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



men, favor the progress of peace, and by them 
Providence is leading forward the great consumma- 
tion. But they work indirectly and blindly. For 
the permanent and indestructible basis of any great 
improvement, there is always needed the founda- 
tion of some great principle, well understood and 
intelligently acted upon. The world can be changed 
only by a change of its ideas. u Opinion is queen of 
the world ; " and he does most for peace, who does 
most to change opinion respecting the right and 
innocence of war, and the duty of peace. Let 
other influences favor the movement as they may, 
the grand decisive influence must always be traced 
to him who set in motion that direct action which 
goes at once to the bottom of the subject, and 
allies the highest truth and sternest motives that 
govern men, in sacred and uncompromising hostility 
against the evil. This did Dr. Worcester. He crea- 
ted the combination ; his followers are already le- 
gions, and their number daily increases. The change 
advances rapidly. And in that blessed day which 
is coming, when war shall no longer be the chief 
occupation of government, and the immense treas- 
ures and splendid talents now occupied in corrupt- 
ing shall be expended in blessing mankind, what name 



76 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



will be repeated with heartier gratitude, than that of 
him who did first and most to accelerate the happy- 
era ; what higher eulogy will be found than the fact 
which he wished written on his tombstone, " He 

WROTE THE FRIEND OF PEACE." 



CHAPTER V. 



Later Inquiries and Publications on Redemption and Human 
Nature. — Note by the Editor. 

In the year 1828, on completing his 70th year, 
Dr. Worcester felt that it was time to relieve him- 
self of some of his burdensome responsibilities, and 
seek more of that repose to which age invites. He 
accordingly resigned his office as Secretary of the 
the Peace Society, and discontinued the publication 
of the Friend of Peace. It was not that he wished 
to cease from occupation, and abandon himself to 
repose. His mind was still active, and pursued with 
eagerness the inquiries in which he was interested. 
It was now turned with engrossing attention to the 
great question of the purpose and influences of the 
Saviour's sufferings ; and in thinking and writing on 
this he for a long time occupied his leisure hours. "It 
was a subject on which I had failed, up to that time, 
of obtaining views perfectly satisfactory to my own 
7* 



78 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



mind. By former inquiries, I had indeed been led 
to relinquish a considerable part of the Calvinistic 
theory relating to that subject ; still I was much in 
the dark, and unable to answer many important 
questions which often occurred to my mind. * * I 
began to write on the subject in March, 1827. In 
the course of that year, I obtained such satisfaction 
on the subject as I never before possessed. 7 In 
1828, I revised what I had before written, and 
made considerable addition to the quantity of man- 
uscripts on various questions. In the autumn of 
that year, my mind became so absorbed 'in these 
inquiries, that I found it difficult to write for the 
Friend of Peace, a work which for twelve years 
had occupied nearly all my time, and for which I 
had written with great delight. I found it incon- 
venient to have my attention divided between two 
subjects of such importance ; and that I might, for 
a time, bestow my whole attention on the subject of 
the Atonement, was one reason why I wished to 
discontinue the Friend of Peace, and my labors for 
the Peace Society. From early in December of 
the last year, to the middle of August in this, 
[1829,] my time was incessantly devoted to ques- 
tions relating to the Atonement. # * I may say 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



79 



with truth, that the employment was to me delight- 
ful ; and I am not without hope that my labors will 
be found useful to many humble Christians of 
inquiring minds. For I have not a doubt that many 
such have been embarrassed by such views of the 
subject as they received by education." 

The result of these studies was given to the 
world in 1829, in a small volume under the title of 
" The Atoning Sacrifice, a display of Love not of 
Wrath." It excited a good deal of attention. It 
shortly passed through a second edition here, and 
has been republished three times at least in England. 
It bears evidence of the manner in which it was 
composed. Being made up of a series of separate 
essays and independent inquiries, such as would 
form successive stages of a minute investigation, 
and not having been, after the investigation was 
ended, digested into one orderly treatise, it may be 
thought to lack the apparent concatenation and 
progress which are necessary to give such a work 
its whole power. But as a collection of materials 
to aid an anxious inquirer, especially in the elucida- 
tion of the many minor questions and the interpreta- 
tion of texts, the book is of inestimable value ; as 
well as a delightful specimen of the tenderness, 



80 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



solemnity, and devoutness of spirit in which so 
momentous a subject should be treated. The title 
of the work discloses its aim ; — which was not to 
decide which of the almost innumerable schemes of 
the atonement is to be received as the scriptural 
and true ; but to demonstrate that none can be true 
which does not found its efficacy in the Love of 
God; that all notions of a vicarious or substituted 
punishment, of an operation on the Divine mind 
whereby it was rendered placable by the satisfaction 
of blood, are anti-scriptural ; and that therefore all 
doctrinal expositions which favor them are inadmis- 
sible. This idea prevailed more and more in the 
author's mind as he advanced in years, and came 
to possess it with such strength, that he appears to 
have become unable to contemplate the common 
doctrine, without shuddering, or to speak of it with- 
out involuntary horror. The numerous papers 
on the subject which he left behind him show how 
long and how anxiously his mind dwelt on the sub- 
ject. He more and more completely and habitually 
tried all religious views of the Divine Character and 
Administration by the standard of the Paternal 
Relation, and the thought of a vicarious atonement 
became more and more insupportable. His in- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



81 



creasing filial piety shrunk from it with growing 
abhorrence. " Is it not deeply to be lamented, 
that a doctrine has been long popular among 
Christians, which ascribes to God a disposition and 
character which no ruler nor parent can imitate with- 
out becoming odious in the view of well-informed 
and benevolent men ? " 

After the publication of this work on the Atone- 
ment, Dr. Worcester gave his time to the prepar- 
ation of a small book on " The Causes and Evils of 
Contention among Christians ; " a subject familiar 
to his thoughts and near his heart, and on which he 
had in various forms and at various times already 
written much. It did not occupy him long, and was 
issued from the press in 1831. He thus expressed 
his feelings on the occasion. 

" May 19, 1831. The last signature of my Let- 
ters to Christians on the Causes and Evils of 
Contention has been corrected, and the work will 
probably be published in a few days. It has been 
ray aim to do some good if possible, to correct 
some injurious opinions, to abate the heat of party 
passions, and to promote that love and harmony 
among Christians of different opinions, which was 
the object of our Saviour's prayer, as well as of his 



82 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORESTER. 



New Commandment. The want of this love, and 
the indulgence of an opposite spirit have, in my 
opinion, been the principal obstacles to the progress 
of Christianity. How the Letters will be received 
is to me very uncertain. Such are the prejudices 
of different sects at the present time, as to give 
reason to fear that many will prejudge what I have 
written, and refuse to read the book. I hope, 
however, that there are some candid people of the 
different sects who will not only read but approve, 
so far as what I have written is according to the 
scriptures." Dr. Worcester's charitable hopeful- 
ness was always strong. 

Pursuing the train of thought which had so long 
engaged him, he now turned to inquiries relative 
to the origin and causes of human sinfulness. 

u Soon after I had published on the atoning 
sacrifice, my mind was turned to that of human 
depravity or man's liability to sin. But it was not 
without some fear and trembling that I resolved to 
make a more thorough examination of this interest- 
ing subject. It was hardly probable that at so late 
a period of my life, I should be able to make a 
very thorough examination of a subject so difficult ; 
and I felt a reluctance to leaving anything in writing 
which might be unsatisfactory even to myself. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



83 



" Yet I could not be contented with such views 
as I then possessed of a subject so interesting to 
myself and to all our race ; and one in which the 
character of God is so deeply involved. No view 
of the subject had then been presented to my mind, 
which did not in some way or other seem to im- 
peach either the wisdom or the benevolence of the 
Deity ; at length I found myself unable to vindicate 
the wisdom and benevolence of God on any theory 
which I had examined. I had no doubt that his 
wisdom and benevolence were consistent with man's 
liability to sin, and with the universality of the fact; 
but how they were so I was unable to explain. To 
obtain a satisfactory explanation was the object of 
my inquiry. I have now great reason to acknow- 
ledge the goodness of God in not only prolonging 
my life and giving me health to pursue the inquiry, 
but in granting me such light on the subject as 
affords great satisfaction to my own mind. I need 
not here repeat the circumstances which attended 
the first burst of light into my mind, as they are 
briefly related in a Preliminary statement of Facts, 
or the First Letter to Friends. But scarcely any 
other favor of Providence to me has been contem- 
plated with more pleasure and gratitude, than that 



84 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

in which I seemed to be clearly shown that man's 
liability to sin has resulted not from the displeasure 
but the benevolence of God. In no part of my 
life did I ever enjoy so great happiness in contem- 
plating the character of God as it is displayed in 
the government of the world, and his conduct to- 
wards mankind, as I have in the last six months. I 
have written on the subject with great pleasure, and 
perhaps greater pleasure than I had previously 
written upon this or any other subject. I may add, 
my conscience bears me witness that it has been my 
aim to write in such a manner as will exhibit the 
character of God to my fellow men in a just and 
amiable light, corresponding with John's declaration, 
'God is love.'" 

The following is the passage above referred to 
from the " Preliminary Statement." 

' c Though prior to engaging in the ministry I had 
discarded the doctrine that Adam's posterity c sinned 
in him and fell with him,' and also the doctrine of 
imputation, I still retained the Hopkinsian idea 
of an c established connexion ' between the sin of 
Adam and the first moral exercises of his posterity. 
My views at that period were very similar to those 
more recently published by Dr. Taylor and his 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



65 



New Haven associates. Subsequent inquiries, how- 
ever, had in some respects modified my views of 
the consequences of Adam's sin, before I wrote 
the work on the Atoning Sacrifice. On inquiry I 
could find no proof of the supposed ' established 
connexion/ But the universal liability of mankind 
to sin was too obvious to be questioned ; and how 
to account for this but by the displeasure of God, 
was still to me an insurmountable difficulty. With 
this difficulty on my mind I commenced a series of 
inquiries relating to the sources of human depravity, 
and the importance of christian education. Month 
after month I examined the scriptures, and wrote 
on different questions. On several points I obtained 
much satisfaction. Still, however, the question 
occurred, c How could it be consistent with divine 
goodness, that all the posterity of Adam should be 
subjected to such a state of liability to sin as is 
witnessed in every quarter of the world ? ' 

"With this question I was embarrassed till early 
in June, 1830. Then, while intensely pursuing 
the inquiry, with ardent desires for light, the follow- 
ing questions occurred with the suddenness of light- 
ning : 'Does not liability to sin result from the 
kindness of God — the numerous favors which he 
8 



86 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



bestows upon us, and not from his displeasure? 
And on due inquiry will not this be found to be the 
fact, as the Atoning Sacrifice was found to be a 
* display of love, not of wrath ? ' 

" These questions occurred in such a manner, 
and with what appeared to me such a divine light, 
that I could not but regard them as the suggestions 
of the Divine Spirit, the Comforter which was 
promised by Christ to teach us all things. I had 
little time for reflection before a new, spacious and 
delightful field of contemplation and inquiry was 
opened to my view, which I have endeavored to 
portray in the following chapters. Immediately I 
took my pen to sketch the thoughts which had 
occurred, that nothing might be lost ; and I wrote 
with such reedom and delight as I had seldom 
before experienced. I seemed to myself to have 
entered a new world of thought and reflection. At 
every advancing step, the character of God, like 
the path of the just, seemed to shine brighter and 
brighter ; and the guilt and inexcusableness of sin 
was more and more manifest. 

" My reading has been too limited for me to say, 
that other writers have not given a view of the 
subject similar to the one which may be seen in the 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



87 



following pages. But if they have, I am confident 
that what they wrote was never read by me. Had 
such views been presented to my mind forty or 
even ten years ago, they would have saved me from 
much perplexity and intense study. But if the 
views obtained are the truth, they are worth more 
than all the expense I have been at to obtain them. 
I must, however, gratefully acknowledge, that they 
seem to me rather as special favors from Heaven, 
than as the fruits of my own researches. Yet, 
when discovered, the theory appears so natural, 
the solution of the difficulty so plain, that I cannot 
but feel amazed that it did not occur to my mind 
many years ago." 

This work was published in 1833, in a large 
duodecimo volume of more than three hundred 
pages, under the title of " Last Thoughts on Im- 
portant Subjects: In three Parts; — 1. Man's 
Liability to Sin : 2. Supplemental Illustrations : 
3. Man's Capacity to obey." The general pur- 
pose and character of the book are evident from 
his own language quoted above. Growing out of 
his thoughts on the Atoning Sacrifice, it is pervaded 
by the same fundamental idea. His central govern- 
ing position, the principle from which all his rea- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



soning proceeds and by which his conclusions are 
tested, is the Love of God, in his character of 
Father. By the analogy of that beautiful Relation 
he tries all interpretations of doctrine, and holds 
that nothing can stand which militates against the 
benignity, tenderness and justice of a Fatherly 
government. Hence the tendency to sin in human 
nature cannot be owing to the blighting influence of 
Divine displeasure, entailing corruption on the race 
because offended with the progenitor : but it results 
from that lavish goodness of the Creator, which 
bestows in profusion faculties and bounties, which 
are necessarily liable to abuse and open to tempta- 
tion. It is a proof of the infinite Love, not of the 
Wrath of God. This view is set forth in a great 
variety of statement, with abundance of pertinent 
and ingenious illustration, and with much acuteness 
of critical and logical discussion. So that the 
volume is not, as works on such subjects are too 
apt to be, a dry metaphysical dissertation ; but a 
collection of interesting essays, enlivened with illus- 
trations by anecdote and parable, instructive with 
scriptural interpretation, and an earnest vindication 
of the paternal character of God, and the benignity 
of the Divine administration. The book is loose 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 89 

in its arrangement, and in its style diffuse ; but its 
contents are highly attractive and valuable, and 
indicate a singular youthfulness of mind in so old a 
man. 

"While this work was in preparation and passing 
through the press, the mind of its author became 
busied with other thoughts, and began with the 
interest of earlier days new investigations in the 
regions of truth. A singular and admirable exam- 
ple in a man who had completed his threescore 
and ten, anxious to gain yet more truth, inquisitive 
for further light, and solicitous to change his views 
if he can be persuaded of error. We are reminded 
of the words of Edwards, which stood as the motto 
of the Theological Magazine in which he was 
accustomed to write in his younger days, — words, 
which were fit to be inscribed on the banner under 
which he marched so long as he remained militant 
below; — • " I observe that old men seldom have 
any advantage of new discoveries ; because they 
are beside a way of thinking they have been long 
used to. Resolved, if ever I live to years, that I 
will be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended 
discoveries, and receive them, if rational, how long 
soever I have been used to another way of think- 
8* 



93 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



ing." Dr. Worcester was ready not only to "re- 
ceive " discoveries, but to go forth in search of 
them, a most unusual enterprise for a septuagenarian. 
How interesting is the account which he gives of the 
inquiries to which he was now directing his thought ! 

"January 28, 1831. On January 2d, 1829, 
a new query occurred to my mind on reading the 
following words of Pauh: ' We have this treasure 
in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power 
may be of God, and not of us.' (2 Cor. iv. 7.) 
These words I regarded as having been uttered by 
Paul in relation to himself and the other apostles, 
who had been endowed with supernatural powers to 
enable them to propagate and establish the gospel 
among both Jews and Gentiles. Excepting Paul, 
all the apostles appear to have been men unlearned 
when they entered the school of Christ and came 
under his guidance. They were men who had 
been educated for fishermen, mechanics, or publi- 
cans, and not for any learned profession ; and Paul 
himself was a tent-maker, though he had been 
brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. Who but God 
and his Son w T ould have selected such unlearned 
men, as the primary and principal agents for estab- 
ishing a new religion, which was destined to make 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



91 



its way in opposition to the most inveterate preju- 
dices of Jews and Gentiles, and to be the means of 
a moral reformation of the world, and of the eternal 
salvation of innumerable millions of our race ! Yet 
such it seems was the plan, and the selection of 
agents adopted by infinite wisdom. Why so ? 
c That the excellency of the power might be of 
God ; ' in other words, that it might be obvi- 
ously a work of God and not of human contri- 
vance. 

u While pursuing such reflections, in view of 
Paul's words, the following query occurred to my 
mind. Is it not possible that I have been under 
a mistake in supposing it to be necessary that the 
Messiah should have been originally a person of a 
nature and dignity superior to the greatest of men 
and of angels ? Is it not very possible that Jesus 
was selected for the Messiah on the same principle 
that he selected his apostles ? s that the excellency 
of the power might be of God ? ' He assured his 
disciples that 'he could do nothing of himself;' 
that c the Father in him did the works.' May it not 
then be, that the nature of the Messiah's dignity 
has been grossly misapprehended by Christians, and 
as really so as the nature of his kingdom was mis- 



92 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



apprehended by the Jews ? Perhaps I have been 
under a mistake by not clearly distinguishing between 
natural and spiritual dignity. 

" Thoughts and inquiries of this kind I then 
wrote down, in the hope that I might at some future 
day examine the subject more thoroughly. I de- 
ferred them to a future day, because I was then 
engaged in writing on another subject. On looking 
over some papers, in January 22, 1831, I found 
the notes that I previously 'wrote, and was much 
surprised to find that two years had elapsed since I 
wrote the minutes on this subject. But my mind 
had been occupied during that period with other 
subjects, which appeared to me important. How- 
ever, should my life and health be spared for a few 
weeks, I think it will be my duty to pursue the 
inquiries in relation to the nature of the Messiah's 
dignity and kingdom. I am now at a loss how the 
inquiry will result in my own mind. The truth I 
wish to know ; and if on this point I have been 
ignorant, or have entertained incorrect views, I 
hope God will smile on my inquiries, and enable 
me to write something which will be to his glory, 
the good of my fellow Christians, and my own 
spiritual benefit. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



93 



" May 19, 1831. I have also made some progress 
in my inquiries relating to the Messiah's kingdom, 
and the nature of spiritual dignity. Should life 
and health be prolonged, I hope not only to improve 
my own mind, but to write something which may 
be useful to others. I have become convinced that 
great errors still prevail in regard to the Kingdom 
of Christ ; and I suspect that the nature of His 
dignity has been little understood by myself and by 
Christians in general. Perhaps a mistake on this 
point will account, for the lamentable fact, that 
many who profess to be the disciples of Christ, are 
led to imagine that they evince love to him, by 
bitter revilings against those who dissent from their 
views of his natural dignity. Whether I shall live 
to complete anything in writing on this subject 
which will be even satisfactory to myself, is very 
questionable. If not, I hope others will be led to 
pursue the subject till Christians shall be brought to 
feel, that they can never obtain spiritual dignity by 
their contentions about the natural dignity of Christ, 
and that to be great in his kingdom they must be of 
the disposition of Him who c made himself of no 
reputation,' 'came not to be served but to serve, 
and to give his life a ransom for many.' The due 



94 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



prevalence of such a temper would soon put an 
end to the present quarrels between different sects, 
and Christians would be known by their love one to 
another." 

In the course of his inquiries on this subject, Dr. 
Worcester wrote many chapters, and made some 
progress toward the completion of a w 7 ork of some 
magnitude. He did not finish it ; and does not 
appear to have arrived at views absolutely decisive 
to his own mind. But as the course of thought, so 
far as he pursued it, was unusually interesting in 
itself as well as to him, and lay in singular harmony 
with his most favorite, most deeply founded and 
long cherished sentiments and feelings, it has seemed 
due to him to publish among his Remains the larger 
part of what he prepared. 

Note by the Editor. The preceding chap- 
ters were written by Dr. Ware in a book ; and I 
have supposed that he intended to copy this chapter 
and the remainder of the work into the same book, 
making alterations and additions. But I do not 
certainly know that such was his intention ; and this 
chapter seems to me to have been prepared with 
care. I therefore make no alterations, except such 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



95 



as the text shows that he wished me to make. If 
any doubt can arise whether this chapter contains 
all that Dr. Ware intended, it must be excited by 
his last paragraph. Speaking of the last subject 
treated of, he says, " it has seemed due to him to 
publish among his Remains the larger part of what 
he prepared." But Dr. Ware had in his posses- 
sion, and had read, the manuscript which my father 
wrote on this subject. He was at full liberty to do 
what he pleased with it ; but he has not extracted 
anything from it, nor made any reference as if he 
intended to have any part of it printed. What he 
has copied is from the autobiography. He probably 
thought, as Dr. Channing did, that the other man- 
uscript on this subject was not in a suitable state for 
publication ; and he probably considered what he 
did copy, as presenting a fair view of my father's 
wavering thoughts on this subject. To this I fully 
accede ; but it does not appear that he has given 
u the larger part " of what my father wrote on 
this subject, although he may have given the larger 
part of what he "prepared." It is possible that 
Dr. Ware wrote this sentence under the impression 
that all or nearly all that my father wrote on this 
subject would be published in a separate volume. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Dr. Worcester's habits in writing and publishing. — His pa- 
tience, candor, and conscientiousness. 

It seems unnecessary, after the history contained 
in the preceding chapters, to attempt any formal 
statement or digest of Dr. Worcester's religious 
opinions. Enough has been stated for informa- 
tion, and nothing is wanted for authority. What 
deserves notice more perhaps than anything else, 
is his great conscientiousness in seeking the truth 
and declaring his convictions, his openness to 
further light on all subjects of inquiry, and the 
union of firmness and candor with which he held all 
truth. It is far more important that we mark and 
hold up to view these high traits of moral character, 
than that we seek to ascertain what were the intel- 
lectual views through which his mind passed and in 
which it rested. 

His conscientiousness and patience in the search 
of truth was a prominent trait. He deeply felt his 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



97 



responsibility, and acted on the conviction that he 
was bound to get as much light as possible and fol- 
low it without scruple wherever it should lead. In 
doing this he was eminently cautious to guard against 
self-deception and hasty conclusions. He used the 
greatest deliberation of patient inquiry, turning the 
subject over and over, that he might be sure no im- 
portant view escaped him, and that through over- 
sight or precipitancy he might not delude himself or 
mislead others. In this he was a model for the imi- 
tation of all inquirers. There are many whose rash 
and positive course is wholly the opposite of his. 
They adopt as most incontrovertible the view which 
for the present is satisfactory to their own minds ; 
they hold for absolute truth whatever now shows 
itself to them as truth ; and are impatient to publish 
it as such for the benefit of the world. They es- 
teem it a duty to proclaim it without delay. Some 
men of eager and restless minds make the public 
the confident of all their processes of thought ; as 
they go on from one speculation to another, each 
seeming to them for the time the great truth, they 
utter it as such, however crude and undigested ; they 
thus keep all within their influence in that same state 
of unsettledness in which they are themselves living, 
9 



98 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER, 



and not a few they fix in some of the views which 
they themselves shortly reject as poisonous errors. 
Dr. Worcester had too much uprightness as well as 
modesty to venture on so mischievous a hazard. He 
felt the responsibility of religious speculation to be 
solemn ; he did not count himself to have the moral 
right to run the risk of misleading other minds by 
the publication of sentiments, however apparently 
true to his own mind, which had not been long dili- 
gently searched, and confirmed by the most deliberate 
and extensive inquiry. Thus, while his whole life 
was a course of study and progress, he was no 
weathercock or chameleon. He mastered his sub- 
ject before he published. For more than twelve 
years did he pursue his investigations concerning the 
trinity. On so momentous a subject he dared not 
assume that his new views were of course right, and 
rush out to lift up his voice in the highways pro- 
claiming his great discovery. He waited for con- 
firmation. He continued to examine, think, talk, 
discuss ; and only after long contemplation of the 
subject on every side, so as to escape the possibility 
of having overlooked any important consideration, 
did he perform his great duty of publishing his mind. 
So in regard to other subjects. His views on the 
atonement and on human sinfulness were wrought 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



99 



out with the same deliberation and conscientious 
caution. They were published only after many 
years of calm, continued religious thought. It is 
admirable to observe how the patient and scrupulous 
old man goes over the ground again and again, ten- 
derly watches against error, and waits year after 
year before he divulges views which fill his own 
heart with peace, lest by any self-delusion he should 
spread erroneous speculations adapted to mislead. 

His fairness in statement, and ingenuousness in 
discussion, are equally to be observed. He entered 
on argument, not as an intellectual enterprise, or a 
trial of logical skill, but as a moral duty, in per- 
forming which he was subject to the laws of honesty 
and truth rather than of mere logic ; and he would 
have regarded the disingenuousness, and perversion of 
an opponent's language, and misstatement of his 
meaning, and false inferences, and other artifices of 
debate which often disgrace the annals of theological 
controversy, no less dishonorable, dishonest and 
criminal, than the concealments and unfair proceed- 
ings in commercial life, which are branded as fraud 
and punished by the universal reprobation of man. 
Perhaps in the history of religious discussions, there is 
no example of one who more uniformly, conscien- 



100 



MEMOIRS OP NOAH WORCESTER. 



tiously, determinately kept in view this great respon- 
sibility, and guarded the temper of debate with more 
scrupulous anxiety. It formed the expression and 
complexion, as it were, of his writings. To some 
it even seemed to be carried to an undue extreme. 
But all the world had been wilfully erring on this 
great point. It seemed to him a practical denial of 
the fundamental law of the Master ; and he felt him- 
self called on to devote his life and powers to efforts 
to rescue it from its neglect, and restore it to the 
honor which is properly its due. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Expressions of the state of Dr. Worcester's mind at different 
periods, or his religious experience. — Editor's Note. 

In this chapter it is proposed to collect from va- 
rious papers some of the few expressions which Dr. 
Worcester from time to time recorded, of the state 
of his mind, and his religious experience. They 
are for the most part written on loose pieces of pa- 
per, generally brought out by the recurrence of some 
interesting event, or the arrival of some era. He 
kept no regular diary of his religious life, for rea- 
sons which he has stated in his autobiographical let- 
ters, and which it seems proper to insert in this 
place. 

" There was a portion of my life, after I entered 
on the ministry, in which I kept a journal of the 
exercises of my mind, and various occurrences of 
Providence. This I continued to do till I became 
impressed with the idea that the practice exposed to 
9* 



102 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



temptation. I then discontinued the practice and 
destroyed the journals I had kept. I had read 
diaries which had been kept by others, some of 
which were very satisfactory and entertaining, in 
others I thought I discovered in the writers too 
great a desire to exalt themselves. I could not but 
fear that I might be guilty of a similar fault." 

1831. u The month of November has again ar- 
rived. It has been a remarkable month in the his- 
tory of my life. It was the month of my birth, and 
that of two of my brothers and one of my sisters ; 
the month of my first marriage, and of the death of 
my first wife ; of the death of my oldest daughter, 
and of the birth of my youngest." 

In this connection may properly be stated a few 
other facts, the precise date of which is uncertain, 
which help to show the estimation in which he was 
held, and to mark the steps by which he came for- 
ward into life. One of these is, the effort that was 
made by a person of influence to secure for him the 
office of clerk of the court for the county. The 
failure was a sad disappointment at the time, as it 
offered to him a safe living and honorable employ- 
ment, at a time when his prospects were very limited 
and uncertain. He afterward saw reason to con- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 103 

gratulate himself on the disappointment. u Had I 
then obtained the office," he said, " I should proba- 
bly have been fixed in a course of civil or political 
employments for life, exposed to numerous perils 
and snares, and denied the pleasures I have enjoyed 
as a student of divinity and a teacher of religion. 
It was surely well for me that God's thoughts were 
not as my thoughts." After this he was for several 
years sent as representative to the General Court, and 
was appointed a justice of the peace. A few years 
later, while settled in the ministry, an endeavor was 
made to persuade him to stand as candidate for the 
House of Representatives in Congress ; but to this 
proposition he would not listen for a moment. He 
had then chosen his profession, and no other em- 
ployment had any attractions for him." 

Brighton, May 16, 1814. 

u Of all I have published at any period of my life, 
I can say that what I wrote appeared to me to be 
true at the time of writing ; but I have always been 
liable to err ; nor have I been unwilling, as I have 
advanced in life, to relinquish former errors as fast 
as they were discovered. Some things, which once 
appeared to me correct, now appear incorrect ; 



104 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



other things which once appeared very important, 
appear now of less importance, whether correct or 
not. Some of my earlier writings I have not ex- 
amined for many years, and they doubtless contain 
something which I should now view as incorrect, or 
unimportant. In many instances, I should now 
change the mode of representation, and some things 
I should suppress." 

March 26, 1815. 

" Since I have been in my present situation, I 
have enjoyed much comfort, and I hope I have 
done some good. But why I was ever thought of 
as an Editor for a periodical work, I cannot tell. 
God knows, and he had some good end in view. 
If I may have been the instrument of exciting 
attention to the spirit of the christian religion, and 
of showing the evil and danger of those things 
which are inconsistent with the christian temper, 
or injurious to the souls of men and the peace of 
the church, I shall have occasion to rejoice." 

Nov. 24, 1815. 

"If I am thankful for anything, I think I am 
thankful that I was not called out of the world in 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



105 



darkness on the subject of war, and that my mind 
has been led to examine the subject with so much 
care. I have also reason to bless God that what 
I have published on this subject has been so well 
received by Christians of different sects ; and that 
there is so much reason to hope that the tracts will 
be extensively useful. Had as much clamor been 
raised against these writings, as against some others 
that I have published, it would have been very 
trying to me, and perhaps I should not have borne 
the trial in a christian manner. I think if I were 
now on my death bed, it would be to me a matter 
of great joy that I was not called prior to my 
writing on that subject, a subject so intimately con- 
nected with the nature, the success, and the glory 
of the gospel ; and one on which the lives and the 
salvation of so many of my fellow men are depend- 
ing. On no other account have I more desire to 
live another year, than that I may pursue my inqui- 
ries relating to the nature of Christianity and its 
blessed tendency to reform as well as to save man- 
kind. How great delusions I may yet be in, I 
know not ; but if my life shall be spared, I hope I 
shall be enabled so to pursue my inquiries, and to 
correct what is still erroneous in my views of 



106 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

religion, as not to live in vain, in respect to myself 
or my fellow men. But 1 feel a pleasure in the 
thought, that however soon I may be called, what 
I have written in the course of the last year will 
not die with me. God I believe will raise up 
others to pursue, and to improve the subject till it 
shall produce a powerful effect on the christian 
world. My mistakes others will correct, and the 
hints which I have given others will improve, and 
the light will shine brighter and brighter unto the 
perfect day. Long after the name and the wri- 
tings of Philo Pacificus shall have been forgotten, 
thousands of posterity may be enjoying peace, life, 
and happiness, in consequence of what he has 
written. Not only so, many souls may be saved 
from the bottomless pit, and become heirs of im- 
mortal bliss, by the blessing of God on his endea- 
vors for the good of mankind. O Lord grant that 
it may be so." 

April 20, 1817. 

u It is now nearly four years since I came to this 
place, as editor of the Christian Disciple. In the 
course of these years I have experienced much 
of the mercy of the Lord, and have enjoyed much 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 107 

comfort in my attempts to correct what I have 
believed to be erroneous in my own past opinions 
and in the opinions of others. It has been my 
aim to search out, and to publish the truth. Still, 
it is probable that future inquiries will detect some 
errors in what I have honestly written. Perhaps 
also it will appear to impartial minds, that I have 
not been always prudent in my manner of exposing 
what I believed to be error. I claim no exemption 
from human infirmities, although my conscience 
bears me witness that it has been my aim to pro- 
mote peace on earth and good will among men of 
all descriptions." 

Nov. 25, 1817. 

"No year of my life has been crowned with more 
mercies than the last ; none more satisfactorily spent 
in respect to myself ; and I hope I have not lived 
in vain as to the good of others. By far the greater 
part of my waking hours have been employed on 
the subject of war and peace ; and the more I 
reflect and examine, the more important the subject 
appears, the more I wonder at myself and others, 
that it was so long neglected. I can reflect on no 
part of my life or my labors with more pleasure 



108 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



than on what has been devoted to the cause of 
peace. For all I have been enabled to do in so 
good a cause, I am indebted to Him who has the 
residue of the spirit — to Him be all the praise. 
May his spirit still guide me, uphpld me, and 
furnish me — save me from error, preserve me from 
sin, and make my heart and my life conformable to 
the principles of justice, love, and peace, which 
his word inculcates, and which I have endeavored 
to disseminate and enforce. Knowing my sun is 
going down, that my time is short, may I be more 
and more active to have my work done, and well 
done, before the night shall come which will put an 
end to my labors on earth. May I daily imbibe 
more and more of the spirit of him who was meek 
and lowly of heart ; in this way may I seek and 
find rest to my soul. While I expose the wicked- 
ness of war, may I ever feel true compassion for 
those who are still bewildered by the custom. 
What scenes are before me, what trials await me, 
are known to him who cannot err. May his grace 
be sufficient for me, to preserve me from despon- 
dency and distrustfulness, and from the indulgence 
of any passion, or the adoption of any measure, by 
which his name would be dishonored, or the cause 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



109 



of truth and peace injured. "While I live mindful 
that my great change is at hand, may I ever derive 
comfort from the thought that God will live when I 
shall be laid in the grave ; that he can lay aside one 
instrument, and employ another to carry on his 
work ; that he can enable those who shall succeed 
me to correct my involuntary errors, and supply my 
defects ; and that he can even promote the cause 
which lies nearest my heart, by removing me from 
the world. May I also so live as to maintain a well 
grounded hope, that after I have done all in my 
power to promote peace on earth, I shall go to a 
world of uninterrupted peace, where my ears will 
be no more assailed with the din of arms or the 
clamor of men who thirst for blood ; where Christ- 
ians of all denominations will cease to reproach 
each other, and be of one heart and one soul in 
abhorring all their past bickerings and strife, and 
cordially unite in giving praise to a sin-pardoning 
God, and to the Lamb who hath loved us and 
redeemed us unto God by his blood. 

"During the period of ten years' residence in 
Brighton, I have enjoyed a state of as much tran- 
quillity as I could reasonably have anticipated in any 
part of the world, and have been treated with more 
10 



110 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

attention and respect than I have deserved. Very 
seldom have I had a word of unpleasant altercation 
with any human being ; and I have not, that I 
recollect, received more than one letter from any 
one quarter, which I had reason to suppose was 
written with a design to wound my feelings. Nor 
have I been aware of any intended insult or dis-. 
respect from the clergy of any denomination. Those 
who have dissented from my opinions have treated 
me with kindness, so far as I have had intercourse 
with them, or have been acquainted with their 
conduct towards me. As their opinions have been 
different from mine, their objecting to my views 
ought not to be regarded as unfriendly or disrespect- 
ful. I have also objected to theirs, without indulg- 
ing towards them unkind or disrespectful feelings." 

August 26, 1831. 

"I am now old, on the borders of the grave, and 
it is with me the day of adversity. My beloved 
wife is very sick, and will probably live but a few 
days. In this situation I set down to answer some 
questions which others may propose. As it is 
known to many that I have relinquished all hope of 
being saved on the ground of a vicarious punish- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. Ill 

ment, endured for me by Him who 4 loved us and 
gave himself for us,' some of my acquaintance may 
wish to know whether I have given up all hope of 
salvation. They may ask on what ground my hope 
rests, if I have a hope ? Whether I regard my- 
self as so righteous or sinless as to have no need of 
pardoning mercy ? and if not, in what way I hope 
for the pardon of my sins ? 

c£ In reply to such inquiries I am permitted to 
say even in this hour of trial and in the prospect of 
death, that I have a consoling hope of pardon and 
salvation. It is not, however, as a sinless being 
that I hope to be saved. But to me it is a £ true 
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus 
Christ came into the world to save sinners.' I 
believe that c God so loved the world that he sent 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish but have everlasting life ; ' that 
c the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the 
world.' Such divine declarations I regard as ' good 
tidings,' for I feel that I have great need of pardon 
for my numerous offences. My hope of salvation 
is based on that ocean of the Father's love which 
c spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for 
us all,' that he might reveal to us the way of life, 



112 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



be the Mediator between God and our guilty race, 
the light of the world, the way, the truth and the 
life. Believing in the record which God gave of 
the Son, and which the Son gave of the Father, 
as disposed to pardon all who repent and obey the 
gospel, I hope in divine mercy." 

Sept. 1831. 

" There was a portion of my life, after I entered 
on the ministry in which I kept a journal of the 
exercises of my mind, and various occurrences of 
providence. This I continued to do till I became 
impressed with the idea, that the practice exposed 
me to temptation ; I then discontinued the practice 
and destroyed the journals I had kept. I had read 
diaries which had been kept by others, some of 
which were very satisfactory and entertaining, in 
others I thought I discovered in the writers too 
great a desire to exalt themselves. I could not but 
fear that I should be guilty of a similar fault. Even 
now, I could state many things relating to the exer- 
cises of my mind in relation to religion while I was 
young — also many perilous situations in which I 
was placed, many temptations to which I was ex- 
posed, and many instances of the preserving mercy 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 113 



of God. But similar things have probably been 
common to hundreds and even thousands of others. 
I can recollect enough to excite in myself both 
wonder and gratitude, as well as contrition ; and 
these perhaps are the best uses which can be made 
of such recollections." 

Nov. 5, 1831. 

<c Some persons will doubtless deem it an objec- 
tion to my character, that so many of my writings 
have been on controversial subjects, and I am 
aware that controversy is too often conducted in a 
manner which tends to sour the mind, and to alien- 
ate the affections of a writer from those who dis- 
sent from his opinions. Indeed I have little doubt, 
that some controversial writers have indulged to- 
wards each other as bitter and unchristian feelings, 
as are indulged by the soldiers of different coun- 
tries in their sanguinary strife. How far I have 
been guilty of indulging such feelings, God perhaps 
only knows ; others must judge for themselves in 
view of what I have written. Were I to review 
all I have written, I should doubtless find a number 
of things which I should regret, and wish they had 
been differently expressed. But I have no recol- 
10* 



114 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



lection of having written anything with a desire to 
injure the character of any brother whose opinions 
were different from mine. It is now some conso- 
lation to me, so near the close of life, and in the 
prospect of so soon finishing my course, that I 
have ever written on controversial subjects with a 
deep conviction of my own liability to err — even 
on those points on which I have most strongly 
expressed my dissent from others ; and that it has 
been my aim to express this dissent with friendly 
feelings, and without calling in question their Christ- 
ian character, on account of their opinions. If in 
any instance I have failed of so doing, it has wholly 
escaped my recollection. Indeed if such a viola- 
tion of the laws of love should now be pointed out 
to me, I should feel bound to retract it as unchrist- 
ian and indefensible. 

" What am I, that I should assume the preroga- 
tive of God, in judging the hearts of my fellow 
men, my Christian brethren ! What am I that I 
should dare to censure thousands of fellow Christ- 
ians as the enemies of God, because they happen 
to differ from me in their interpretations of some 
ambiguous words or phrases, which are used in the 
Bible ! Most of these dissenting brethren are wholly 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 115 

unknown to me ; many of them have probably better 
talents than I have, and on many accounts have had 
greater advantages than myself, and surely I do not 
know that they have been less careful or less hum- 
ble in their inquiries than I have been in mine. 
What then is this self-sufficient and censorious 
spirit, which so often appears in sermons and in 
controversial writings, but the spirit of those Phar- 
isees who c trusted in themselves that they were 
righteous and despised others.' If at this late 
period of my life, I should find evidence that such 
is the spirit with which my controversial writings are 
imbued, I should shudder at the prospect of my 
final reckoning." 

Jan. 26, 1832. 

cc Being now in my seventy-fourth year, I must 
expect soon to follow my wife to the house appoint- 
ed for all the living. But am I prepared for the 
event ? What are the best evidences of prepara- 
tion for death ? These are important questions, 
worthy of daily attention. I hope they will not be 
forgotten by me, or any more treated with neglect. 
How long God may see fit to prolong my life is 
to me unknown nor should this be my greatest 



116 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



concern. I should indeed be willing to live as long 
as it shall be God's pleasure to preserve me ; but 
in itself considered, I do not think it is desirable 
that old people should survive their usefulness. I 
cannot pray that it may be so with myself." 

Note. — In my last conversation with Dr. Ware, 
I stated to him my father's views concerning the 
duration of the misery of the wicked, and concern- 
ing the personality of God ; and we agreed that a 
statement of these views should be given in the 
Memoirs. As I do not find this statement in what 
Dr. Ware has written, it seems to be my duty to 
supply it. 

My father was accustomed to teach plainly in his 
sermons, that the misery of the wicked would be 
eternal. After his views on many subjects became 
Unitarian, I was interested to know whether he 
had adopted the opinions of his Unitarian brethren 
in favor of Restoration. He very frankly stated 
that he considered the Lord's answer to the ques- 
tion, — Are there few that be saved, as deciding 
that those who died in sin would never be made 
happy. The text referred to is Luke xiii. 23-30. 
Within a year or two of the time of his death, I 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



117 



heard him repeat these verses with great solemnity, 
and he then added, — u The Lord certainly knows 
whether all would he saved ; could He have given 
this answer if He had known that all would he 
saved ? I think not : I think He teaches -plainly 
that the wicked, or those who die in sin, will never 
be saved." He left a short MS. relating to this 
subject, which confirms all that I have stated. 

About the year 1817, after I had embraced the 
doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church, I had 
several conversations with my father concerning the 
popular denial that God should be regarded as in 
the human form, or in any form. I inquired 
whether we could possibly have any definite and 
determinate idea of a being, to whom we ascribed 
no form ; and I showed that the Scriptures repre- 
sent God as in in the human form. I told him 
that I could not distinguish between atheism and 
belief in a God ivithout form, a God of whom we 
have no determinate and formal idea, an impersonal 
God. 

The conversations on this subject were long and 
numerous. There can be no doubt that my father 
distinctly understood me as insisting that the Di- 
vine Being is the Divine Man ; that He is to 



118 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



be thought of, believed in, and worshipped, and 
as having all the organs and members belonging to 
this form, a head, body, arms, hands, feet, &c., as 
the Scriptures say. I denied that we had any right 
to substitute human philosophy for revelation on a 
subject of which we can know nothing but what is 
revealed. 

In the first conversation my father hesitated, and 
did not admit that I was right. My comparing the 
common faith in an impersonal God with atheism, 
startled him, and he reproved me. But a day or 
two after this, he said he was convinced that we 
must believe in God as in in some form, in order 
to believe in Him at all ; and that we ought to 
think of Him as in a perfect human form. 
To this I assented, and reminded him that I had 
not conveyed the idea that we should think of God 
as an imperfect man like ourselves, but as the One 
only DIVINE MAN. To this he readily agreed; 
and in many subsequent conversations — some of 
them in his last years — he said that those who did 
not think of God as in the human form, could have 
no definite faith in him. 

I often endeavored to convince him that the 
Father and the Son should not be thought of as two 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



119 



persons or beings, but that the Son of God is God 
as He is manifested in a visible, bodily form, and 
that in this Divine Humanity, or Son of God, 
dwelleth all the fullness of the Divinity bodily. I 
did not, however, succeed in my endeavors ; and I 
have no doubt that he continued to the time of his 
death to believe that God and the Son of God are 
two persons or beings. 

It may not be improper to mention in this place, 
that while my father was preparing his work on the 
Atoning Sacrifice, he desired me to show him what 
Swedenborg wrote on the subject. He read a 
considerable part of it, and seemed greatly pleased 
to find that the doctrine of the New Jerusalem 
represents the Divine Being as perfectly merciful. 
But his belief that the Lord Jesus Christ is not 
God, but a person distinct from God, prevented his 
adopting the doctrine of Redemption as taught by 
Swedenborg. 

On hearing him repeat one of the texts which 
teach that we are washed, cleansed, purified, and 
redeemed by the blood of Christ, I asked him 
whether this blood was the material blood which 
was shed on the cross. In the course of this con- 
versation I desired him to examine as far as he could 



120 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



the texts which tell what it is by which we are 
washed, redeemed, and sanctified. Soon after I 
read to him a discourse, in which I had endeavored 
to prove that this blood means the divine blood 
and not material blood ; and that the divine blood, 

is the DIVINE TRUTH THE TRUTHS OF THE 

Sacred Scripture* 

After I had read the discourse, he said very 
emphatically, that I had " demonstrated the truth 
of my main proposition, viz., that the Lord's blood, 
by which we are said to be cleansed, redeemed, &c, 
means in Scripture the divine truth, and not the 
material blood which was shed on the cross." 

This subject was referred to in several other 
conversations ; and he gave me good reason to 
believe that he rejoiced in this spiritual view of the 
Lord's Blood. — Editor. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



[By the Editor.] 

Selections from Dr. Ware's manuscripts. Extract from Dr. 
Channing's Sermon. Concluding remarks by the Editor. 

Among the papers of Dr. Ware which have 
been submitted to me, I find a few things which 
were intended for this chapter. Nothing is written 
out, but only sketches of his thoughts are found, 
and these have been much altered to render them 
intelligible. I give them in the best manner that I 
can ; and I have no doubt that they will convey the 
author's meaning. 

REMARKS OF DR. WARE. 

We have thus followed the life of this good man 
from its beginning, through its long course of pro- 
gress and change, to its closing days of tranquil 
and holy rest. The picture which it leaves on our 
11 



122 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



hearts, is one of eminent beauty. Consistent, up- 
right, conscientious, and beneficent, it displays dis- 
tinctly the traits of the faithful Christian ; and its 
example is one of adherence to duty, and devotion 
to truth. Rarely do we find a truer instance of 
fidelity to one's sense of right, independent and 
unawed, with a meeker regard for the liberty and 
independence of others, and a more absolute sub- 
mission to the authority of the Divine Word. It 
was the union of these which made his Christian 
life, and as character is always constituted in part 
of its native endowments, and original temperament, 
so here also his original temperament formed a 
groundwork never obliterated, upon which the su- 
perstructure of his ultimate character rested. 

In such occupations the few remaining years of 
his life wore tranquilly away. He went less and 
less abroad. He retreated more and more to the 
contemplative solitude of his study. His infirmi- 
ties sensibly increased upon him. But he struggled 
on ; and it was beautiful to witness the consistency 
with which he patiently waited, serene, tranquil, 
humble, and grateful, the arrival of his summons to 
depart. 

See him then during these last years of debility 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



123 



and retirement. He lives humbly and almost alone; 
his daughter is with him to attend and cheer him ; 
infirmity confines him much to the house, but he 
goes abroad for the little exercise of body which he 
can bear, — chiefly walking in the neighboring 
grounds of Mr. Parsons. His mode of life in the 
highest degree patriarchal, frugal, simple, his habits 
moderate, his wants few ; and for the Providence 
which grants a supply to them, and the generous 
friends who contributed to his living, he never 
wants the luxury of a heart full of the most affect- 
ing gratitude. Subject to severe ill turns, liable at 
any hour to be cut off ; burdened with the weariness 
of perpetual languor ; living on sufferance from day 
to day ; he sits serene, gentle, cheerful, more than 
resigned, thankful, occupied as ever with thoughts 
of others, with solicitude for the welfare of man, 
and cares for the kingdom of God. Nothing es- 
capes his attention that concerns the honor of 
Divine truth, and the advancement of righteousness 
and charity. Shut out from the world, his spirit is 
in the midst of it ; and his little study witnesses his 
labors still in its behalf. War, oppression, error, 
intemperance, slavery, occupy his mind, and his 
pen ; and sheet after sheet, testifies to the lively 



124 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



sensibility and deep concern with which he still 
pursues the great and favorite interests of humanity. 
The papers consisting of remarks on the several 
important questions pertaining to these topics as 
they came up in the events of the day, and the 
discussions of the journals, would make volumes. 
The last subject on which he was writing, was 
slavery. He wrote and re-wrote with care a con- 
siderable treatise for the press, not many months 
before his death ; and the various articles which 
lie among his papers show that he had looked into 
all the questions which pertain to that vexed subject, 
with the perseverance and earnestness which be- 
longed to his younger days. Here, as always, he 
was found steadfast on the side of right and hu- 
manity. 

He had a great fondness for metrical composition. 
When he sat musing by himself, and his feelings 
glowed with devotional or philanthropic sentiment, 
they spontaneously found vent in verse ; and very 
numerous are the hymns of praise and personal 
gratitude, humanity and faith which remain among 
his papers, the memorials of his passing frames of 
thought, and records of interesting occurrences. 
From the readiness with which he assumed this 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



125 



mode of expression, the enjoyment which it evidently 
afforded him, and the care with which many of these 
productions have been copied and preserved, it is 
plain that he not a little valued them. But the 
love and taste for poetry do not always imply the 
power to excel in it* Natuer had endowed him 
with the poetical temperament, and he had a large 
aptitude for poetical forms of thought. This is 
seen every where throughout his writings in his 
tendency to figurative illustration, especially in his 
love of the parable and allegory ; of which his 
works furnish many beautiful examples, and his 
verses abound in them. But his education had 
unhappily denied him that culture of the taste and 
that power over language, which are essential to 
successful poetical expression ; and his essays are 
valuable only as evidences of the perpetual greenness 
of his soul, and of his ever ready sensibility to 
religious truth, and all the goodness there is in life 
and the universe. It is truly affecting to observe 
the records of daily gratitude and faith, morning 
and evening and mid-day noted down in impromptu 
verse, as if they would not be denied their song ; 
and how passing events and memorable occasions, — 
a birth day, a new-year's day, and other anniver- 
11 * 



126 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



saries, — called out the ready music of his religious 
lyre. It is remarkable, however, that, of formal 
hymns, suited to be sung to our common tunes, 
he wrote almost none ; for he was fond of music, 
and was a good singer. In early and middle life 
he paid no little attention to that science. He was 
a teacher of music. His voice was particularly 
melodious, and he entered into the act of singing 
with a heartiness of evident devotion, that was truly 
impressive to behold. His appearance in his pew 
at Brighton, u with his silver locks flowing to his 
shoulders, his countenance a little elevated, and full 
of the seriousness, earnestness, and delight which 
belong to this act of worship, while his voice was 
readily distinguished through the whole house," is 
described as having been eminently "striking and 
beautiful. 

In politics he always took a strong interest, like 
the other prominent men of his time. With his 
father and brothers he belonged to the Federal 
party, and retained his attachment to it, but without 
violence of party spirit, and with good feelings 
towards opponents. He was familiar with the his- 
tory of the government, and formed very definite 
opinions concerning all its leading measures. His 
reverence for Washington was unlimited. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 127 



His personal appearance was striking. He pos- 
sessed a large frame, and at some periods of his 
life weighed two hundred and thirty pounds. His 
bodily presence was portly and dignified ; his man- 
ners had an unusual suavity, and he wore an habitual 
air of bland deference toward others which amount- 
ed to an almost feminine gentleness. The expres- 
sion of benignity and meekness in his countenance 
was very striking to strangers. 

The peculiar sweetness pf his manners was in 
part a family trait. The same was conspicuous in 
his brothers whom I have seen. It probably was 
increased in him by the perpetual discipline he 
exercised himself to maintain over a temperament 
naturally hasty and irritable, and which he thus 
kept in such a subjection, that few who knew him in 
his riper days ever suspected that his beautiful 
meekness was the attainment of a sharp struggle and 
laborious self-control. " There was a sort of 
majesty in his meekness," says one ; " for it was 
a laborious acquisition, and sat upon him like a 
crown. How many conflicts did it not indicate, 
and how many victories too ! With this impression 
I never could look upon him but with wonder, nor 
think of him without deriving encouragement and 
strength for the ordeal of man's spiritual progress." 



128 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

The portrait by Alexander, painted for Dr. 
Tuckerman, and now in possession of one of his 
sons, represents him with great truth. The best 
likeness, in the judgment of some of his family, 
" as showing his profile, his whole personal outline, 
and most frequent attitude," is found in the sketch 
of an old clergyman reading to a convict, engraved 
for the Religious Offering, 1840. The portrait of 
Hobbes in Knights' Portrait Gallery is remarkably 
like him. 



Among Dr. Ware's papers I find a memorandum 
showing that he intended to insert a part of Dr. 
Channing's Discourse, entitled A Tribute to 
the Memory of Noah Worcester, D. D. I 
shall here copy what I suppose was intended. The 
reader will notice a few errors in respect to Dr. 
Worcester's publications. For statements of facts, 
the preceding pages are to be consulted. 



REMARKS OF DR. CHANNING. 

Within a few days, a great and good man, a 
singular example of the philanthropy which Jesus 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



129 



Christ came to breathe into the world, has been 
taken away ; and as it was my happiness to know 
him more intimately than most among us, I feel as if 
I were called to bear a testimony to his rare good- 
ness, and to hold up his example as a manifestation 
of what Christianity can accomplish in the human 
mind. I refer to the Rev. Noah Worcester, who 
has been justly called the Apostle of Peace, who 
finished his course at Brighton during the last week. 
His great age, for he was almost eighty, and the 
long, and entire seclusion to which debility had 
compelled him, have probably made his name a 
strange one to some who hear me. In truth, it is 
common in the present age, for eminent men to be 
forgotten during their lives, if their lives are much 
prolonged. Society is now a quick-shifting pa- 
geant. New actors hurry the old ones from the 
stage. The former stability of things is strikingly 
impaired. The authority which gathered round the 
aged, has declined. The young seize impatiently 
the prizes of life. The hurried, bustling, tumult- 
uous, feverish Present, swallows up men's thoughts, 
so that he who retires from active pursuits, is as 
little known to the rising generation as if he were 
dead. It is not wonderful then, that Dr. Worcester 



130 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



was so far forgotten by his contemporaries. But 
the future will redress the wrongs of the present ; 
and in the progress of civilization, history will 
guard more and more sacredly the memories of 
men, who have advanced before their age and de- 
voted themselves to great, but neglected interests of 
humanity. 

Dr. Worcester's efforts in relation to war, or in 
the cause of peace, made him eminently a public 
man, and constitute his chief claim to public con- 
sideration ; and these were not founded on acci- 
dental circumstances or foreign influences, but 
wholly on the strong and peculiar tendencies of his 
mind. He w T as distinguished above all whom I 
have known by his comprehension and deep feeling 
of the spirit of Christianity, by the sympathy with 
which he seized on the character of Jesus Christ 
as a manifestation of Perfect Love, by thp honor 
in which he held the mild, humble, forgiving, disin- 
terested virtues of our religion. This distinguish- 
ing trait of his mind was embodied and brought out 
in his whole life and conduct. He especially 
expressed it in his labors for the promotion of Uni- 
versal Peace on the earth. He was struck, as no 
other man within my acquaintance has been, with 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 131 



the monstrous incongruity between the spirit of 
Christianity and the spirit of Christian communities, 
between Christ's teaching of peace, mercy, forgive- 
ness, and the wars which divide and desolate the 
church and the world. Every man has particular 
impressions which rule over and give a hue to his 
mind. Every man is struck by some evils rather 
than others. The excellent individual of whom I 
speak was shocked, heart-smitten, by nothing so 
much, as by seeing, that man hates man, that man 
destroys his brother, that man has drenched the 
earth with his brother's blood, that man in his 
insanity has crowned the murderer of his race with 
the highest honors ; and, still worse, that Christian 
hates Christian, that church wars against church, 
that differences of forms and opinions array against 
each other those whom Christ died to join together 
in closest brotherhood, and that Christian zeal is 
spent in building up sects, rather than in spreading 
the spirit of Christ and enlarging and binding to- 
gether the universal church. The great evil on 
which his mind and heart fixed was War, Discord, 
Intolerance, the substitution of force for Reason 
and Love. To spread peace on earth became 
the object of his life. Under this impulse he gave 



132 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



birth and impulse to Peace Societies. This new 
movement is to be traced to him above all other 
men, and his name, I doubt not, will be handed 
down to future time with increasing veneration as 
the c Friend of Peace,' as having given new force 
to the principles which are gradually to abate 
the horrors, and ultimately extinguish the spirit of 
war. 

The history of the good man, as far as I have 
learned it, is singularly instructive and encouraging. 
He was self-taught, self-formed. He was born 
in narrow circumstances, and to the age of twenty- 
one was a laborious farmer, not only deprived of a 
collegiate education, but of the advantages which 
may be enjoyed in a more prosperous family. An 
early marriage brought on him the cares of a grow- 
ing family. Still he found or rather made time for 
sufficient improvements to introduce him into the 
ministry before his thirtieth year. He was first 
settled in a parish too poor to give him even a 
scanty support : and he was compelled to take a 
farm on which he toiled by day, whilst in the 
evening he was often obliged to use a mechanical 
art for the benefit of his family. He made their 
shoes, an occupation of which Coleridge has some- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



133 



where remarked, that it has been followed by a 
greater number of eminent men than any other 
trade. By the side of his work-bench he kept ink 
and paper, that he might write down the interesting 
thoughts, which he traced out or which rushed on 
him amidst his humble labors. I take pleasure in 
stating this part of his history. The prejudice 
against manual labor as inconsistent with personal 
dignity is one of the most irrational and pernicious, 
especially in a free country. It shows how little we 
comprehend the spirit of our institutions, and how 
deeply we are tainted with the narrow maxims of 
the old aristocracies of Europe. Here was a man, 
uniting great intellectual improvement with refine- 
ment of manners, who had been trained under 
unusual severity of toil. This country has lost 
much physical and moral strength, and its pros- 
perity is at this moment depressed, by the common 
propensity to forsake the plough for less manly 
pursuits, which are thought, however, to promise 
greater dignity as well as ease. 

His first book was a series of letters to a Bap- 
tist minister, and in this he gave promise of the 
direction which the efforts of his life were to as- 
sume. The great object of these letters, was not 
12 



134 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



to settle the controversies about baptism, about 
the mode of administering it whether by immersion 
or sprinkling, or about the proper subjects of it 
whether children or adults alone. His aim was, to 
show that these were inferior questions, that differ- 
ences about these ought not to divide Christians, 
that the ' close communion ' as it is called, of the 
Baptists, was inconsistent with the liberal spirit 
of Christianity, and that this obstruction to Christ- 
ian unity ought to be removed. 

His next publication was what brought him into 
notice, and gave him an important place in our 
theological history. It was a publication on the 
Trinity, and what is worthy of remark, it preceded 
the animated controversy on that point which a few 
years after agitated this city and commonwealth. 
The mind of Dr. Worcester was turned to this 
topic not by foreign impulses but by its own work- 
ings. He had been brought up in the strictest sect, 
that is, as a Calvinist. His first doubts as to the 
Trinity arose from the confusion, the perplexity, 
into which his mind was thrown by this doctrine in 
his acts of devotion. To worship three persons as 
one and the same God, as one and the same being, 
seemed to him difficult if not impossible. He ac- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 135 

cordingly resolved to read and examine the Scrip- 
tures from beginning to end, for the purpose of 
ascertaining the true doctrine respecting God and 
the true rank of Jesus Christ. The views at which 
he arrived were so different from what prevailed 
around him, and some of them so peculiar, that he 
communicated them to the public under the rather 
quaint title of ' Bible News relating to the Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit.' His great aim was to 
prove, that the Supreme God was one person, 
even the Father, and that Jesus Christ was not the 
Supreme God, but his Son in a strict and peculiar 
sense. This idea of 4 the peculiar and natural 
sonship ' of Christ, by which he meant that Jesus 
was derived from the very substance of the Father, 
had taken a strong hold on his mind, and he insisted 
on it with as much confidence as was consistent 
with his deep sense of fallibility. But, as might be 
expected in so wise and spiritual a man, it faded 
more and more from his mind, in proportion as he 
became acquainted with and assimilated to the true 
glory of his Master. In one of his unpublished 
manuscripts, he gives an account of his change of 
view in this particular, and, without disclaiming 
expressly the doctrine which had formerly seemed 



136 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



so precious, he informs us that it had lost its im- 
portance in his sight. The Moral, Spiritual dignity 
of Christ, had risen on his mind in such splendor 
as to dim his old idea of £ natural sonship.' In one 
place he affirms, c I do not recollect an instance 
[in the scriptures] in which Christ is spo"ken of as 
loved, honored, or praised on any other ground 
than his Moral dignity.' This moral greatness he 
declares to be the highest with which Jesus was 
clothed, and expresses his conviction, c that the 
controversies of Christians about his natural dignity, 
had tended very little to the honor of their Master, 
or to their own advantage.' The manuscript to 
which I refer was written after his seventieth year, 
and is very illustrative of his character. It shows, 
that his love of truth was stronger than the tenacity 
with which age commonly clings to old ideas. It 
shows him superior to the theory, which more than 
any other he had considered his own, and which 
had been the fruit of very laborious study. It 
shows how strongly he felt, that Progress was the 
law and end of his being, and how he continued to 
make progress to the last hour. The work called 
c Bible News ' drew much attention, and converted 
not a few to the doctrine of the proper unity of 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 137 

God. Its calm, benignant spirit had no small in- 
fluence in disarming prejudice and unkindness. He 
found, however, that his defection from his original 
faith had exposed him to much suspicion and re- 
proach ; and he became at length so painfully 
impressed with the intolerance which his work had 
excited, that he published another shorter work 
called c Letters to Trinitarians,' a work breathing 
the very spirit of Jesus, and intended to teach, that 
diversities of opinion, on subjects the most mysteri- 
ous and perplexing, ought not to sever friends, to 
dissolve the Christian tie, to divide the church, to 
fasten on the dissenter from the common faith the 
charge of heresy, to array the disciples of the 
Prince of Peace in hostile bands. These works 
obtained such favor, that he was solicited to leave 
the obscure town in which he ministered, and to 
take charge, in this place, of a periodical called at 
6rst the Christian Disciple, and now better known 
as the Christian Examiner. At that time, (about 
twenty-five years ago,) I first saw him. Long and 
severe toil, and a most painful disease, had left their 
traces on his once athletic frame ; but his counte- 
nance beamed with a benignity which at once at- 
tracted confidence and affection. For several years 
12* 



138 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



he consulted me habitually in the conduct of the 
work which he edited. I recollect with admiration 
the gentleness, humility, and sweetness of temper, 
with which he endured freedoms, corrections, re- 
trenchments, some of which I feel now to have 
been unwarranted, and which no other man would 
so kindly have borne. This work was commenced 
very much for doctrinal discussions ; but his spirit 
could not brook such limitations, and he used its 
pages more and more for the dissemination of his 
principles of philanthropy and peace. At length 
he gave these principles to the world, in a form 
which did much to decide his future career. He 
published a pamphlet called c A Solemn Review of 
the Custom of War.' It bore no name, and 
appeared without recommendation, but it immedi- 
ately seized on attention. It was read by multitudes 
in this country, then published in England, and 
translated, as I have heard, into several languages 
of Europe. Such was the impression made by 
this w T ork, that a new association, called the Peace 
Society of Massachusetts, was instituted in this 
place. I well recollect the day of its formation in 
yonder house, then the parsonage of this parish, 
and if there was a happy man that day on earth, it 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORESTER. 



139 



was the founder of this institution. This society 
gave birth to all the kindred ones in this country, 
and its influence was felt abroad. Dr. Worcester 
assumed the charge of its periodical, and devoted 
himself for years to this cause, with unabating faith 
and zeal ; and it may be doubted, whether any 
man, who ever lived, contributed more than he, to 
spread just sentiments on the subject of War, and 
to hasten the era of universal peace. He began 
his efforts in the darkest day, when the whole civil- 
ized world was shaken by conflict, and threatened 
with military despotism. He lived to see more 
than twenty years of general peace, and to see 
through these years, a multiplication of national 
ties, an extension of commercial communications, an 
establishment of new connections between Christ" 
ians and learned men through the world, and a 
growing reciprocity of friendly and beneficent influ- 
ence among different states, all giving aid to the 
principles of peace, and encouraging hopes which 
a century ago would have been deemed insane. 

The abolition of war, to which this good man 
devoted himself, is no longer to be set down as a 
creation of fancy, a dream of enthusiastic philan- 
thropy. War rests on opinion, and opinion is more 



140 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



and more withdrawing its support. War rests on 
contempt of human nature, on the long, mournful 
habit of regarding the mass of human beings as 
machines, or as animals having no higher use than 
to be shot at and murdered, for the glory of a 
chief, for the seating of this or that family on a 
throne, for the petty interests or selfish rivalries 
which have inflamed states to conflict. Let the 
worth of a human being be felt ; let the mass of a 
people be elevated ; let it be understood that a man 
was made to enjoy unalienable right, to improve 
lofty powers, to secure a vast happiness ; and a 
main pillar of war will fall. And is it not plain that 
these views are taking place of the contempt in 
which man has so long been held ? War finds 
another support in the prejudices and partialities of 
a narrow patriotism. Let the great Christian prin- 
ciple of human brotherhood be comprehended, let 
the Christian spirit of universal love gain ground, 
and just so fast the custom of war, so long the 
pride of men, will become their abhorrence and 
execration. It is encouraging to see how outward 
events are concurring with the influences of Christ- 
ianity in promoting peace, how an exclusive nation- 
ality is yielding to growing intercourse, how different 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



141 



nations by mutual visits, by the interchange of 
thoughts and products, by studying one another's 
language and literature, by union of efforts in the 
cause of religion and humanity, are growing up to 
the consciousness of belonging to one great family. 
Every rail road connecting distant regions, may be 
regarded as accomplishing a ministry of peace. 
Every year which passes without war, by interweav- 
ing more various ties of interest and friendship, is a 
pledge of coming years of peace. The prophetic 
faith, with which Dr. Worcester, in the midst of 
universal war, looked forward to a happier era, 
and which was smiled at as enthusiasm or credul- 
ity, has already received a sanction beyond his 
fondest hopes by the wonderful progress of human 
affairs. 

On the subject of War, Dr. Worcester adopted 
opinions which are thought by some to be extreme. 
He interpreted literally the precept, Resist not evil; 
and he believed that nations as well as individuals 
would find safety as well as c fulfil righteousness ' in 
yielding it literal obedience. One of the most 
striking traits of his character, was his confidence 
in the power of love, I might say in its omnipo- 
tence. He believed, the surest way to subdue a 



142 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



foe, was to become his friend ; that a true benev- 
olence was a surer defence than swords, or artillery, 
or walls of adamant. He believed, that no mightier 
man ever trod the soil of America than William 
Penn, when entering the wilderness unarmed, and 
stretching out to the savage a hand which refused 
all earthly weapons, in token of brotherhood and 
peace. There was something grand in the calm 
confidence, with which he expressed his conviction 
of the superiority of moral to physical force. Ar- 
mies, fiery passions, quick resentments, and the 
spirit of vengeance miscalled honor, seemed to him 
weak, low instruments, inviting, and often hastening 
the ruin which they are used to avert. Many will 
think him in error ; but if so, it was a grand thought 
which led him astray. 

At the age of seventy, he felt as if he had 
discharged his mission as a preacher of peace, and 
resigned his office as Secretary to the Society, 
to which he had given the strength of many years. 
He did not, however, retire to unfruitful repose. 
Bodily infirmity had increased, so that he was very 
much confined to his house ; but he returned with 
zeal to the studies of his early life, and produced 
two theological works, one on the atonement, the 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 143 



other on human depravity or the moral state of man 
by nature, which I regard as among the most useful 
books on these long agitated subjects. These wri- 
tings, particularly the last, have failed of the popu- 
larity which they merit, in consequence of a defect 
of style, which may be traced to his defective 
education, and which naturally increased with years. 
I refer to his diffuseness, to his inability to con- 
dense his thoughts. His writings, however, are 
not wanting in merits of style. They are simple 
and clear. They abound to a remarkable degree 
in ingenious illustration, and they have often the 
charm which original thinking always gives to com- 
position. He was truly an original writer, not in 
the sense of making great discoveries, but in the 
sense of writing from his own mind, and not from 
books, or tradition. What he wrote, had perhaps 
been written before ; but in consequence of his 
limited reading, it was new to himself, and came 
to him with the freshness of discovery. Some- 
times great thoughts flashed on his mind, as if they 
had been inspirations ; and in writing his last book, 
he seems to have felt as if some extraordinary 
light had been imparted from above. After his 
seventy-fifth year he ceased to write books, but 



144 



MEMOIRS OP NOAH WORCESTER, 



his mind lost nothing of its activity. He was so 
enfeebled by a distressing disease, that he could 
converse but a few moments at a time ; yet he 
entered into all the great movements of the age, 
with an interest distinguished from the fervor of 
youth, only by its mildness and its serene trust. 
The attempts made, in some of our cities, to propa- 
gate atheistical principles, gave him much concern, 
and he applied himself to fresh inquiries into the 
proofs of the existence and perfections of God, 
hoping to turn his labors to the account of his 
erring fellow-creatures. With this view, he entered 
on the study of nature as a glorious testimony to 
its almighty author. I shall never forget the delight 
which illumined his countenance a short time ago, 
as he told me, that he had just been reading the 
history of the coral, the insect which raises islands 
in the sea. c How wonderfully,' he exclaimed, £ is 
God's providence revealed in these little creatures.' 
The last subject to which he devoted his thoughts, 
was slavery. His mild spirit could never reconcile 
itself to the methods in which this evil is often 
assailed ; but the greatness of the evil he deeply 
felt, and he left several essays on this as on the 
preceding subject, which, if they shall be found unfit 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



145 



for publication, will still bear witness to the intense, 
unfaltering interest with which he bound himself to 
the cause of mankind. 

I have thus given a sketch of the history of a 
good man who lived and died the lover of his kind 
and the admiration of his friends. Two views 
of him particularly impressed me. The first was 
the unity, the harmony of his character. He had 
no jarring elements. His whole nature had been 
blended and melted into one strong, serene love. 
His mission was to preach peace, and he preached 
it not on set occasions, or by separate efforts, but 
in his whole life. It breathed in his tones. It 
beamed from his venerable countenance. He car- 
ried it, where it is least apt to be found, into the 
religious controversies, which raged around him 
with great vehemence, but which never excited 
him to a word of anger or intolerance. All my 
impressions of him are harmonious. I recollect no 
discord in his beautiful life ; and this serenity was 
not the result of torpidness or tameness ; for his 
whole life was a conflict with what he thought 
error. He made no compromise with the world, 
and yet he loved it as deeply and constantly as if 
13 



146 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



it had responded in shouts to all his views and 
feelings. 

The next great impression which I received from 
him was that of the sufficiency of the mind to its 
own happiness, or of its independence on outward 
things. He was for years debilitated and often a 
great sufferer ; and his circumstances were very 
narrow, compelling him to so strict an economy, 
that was sometimes represented, though falsely, as 
wanting the common comforts of life. In this 
tried and narrow condition, he was among the most 
contented of men. He spoke of his old age as 
among the happiest portions if not the very hap- 
piest in his life. In conversation his religion man- 
ifested itself in gratitude more frequently than in 
any other form. When I have visited him in his 
last years, and looked on his serene countenance, 
and heard his cheerful voice, and seen the youthful 
earnestness with which he was reading a variety of 
books, and studying the great interests of humanity, 
I have felt how little of this outward world is 
needed to our happiness. I have felt the greatness 
of the human spirit, which could create to itself 
such joy from its own resources. I have felt the 
folly, the insanity of that prevailing worldliness, 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



147 



which in accumulating outward good, neglects the 
imperishable soul. On leaving his house and turn- 
ing my face toward the city, I have said to myself, 
how much richer is this poor man than the richest 
who dwell yonder. I have been ashamed of my 
own dependence on outward good. I am always 
happy to express my obligations to the benefactors 
of my mind ; and I owe it to Dr. Worcester to 
say, that my acquaintance with him gave me clearer 
comprehension of the spirit of Christ, and of the 
dignity of a man. 

And he has gone to his reward. He has gone 
to that world of which he carried in his own breast 
so rich an earnest and pledge, to a world of Peace. 
He has gone to Jesus Christ, whose spirit he so 
deeply comprehended and so freely imbibed, and 
to God whose universal, all-suffering, all-embracing 
love he adored, and in a humble measure made 
manifest in his own life. But he is not wholly 
gone ; not gone in heart, for I am sure that a bet- 
ter world has heightened, not extinguished, his 
affection for his race ; and not gone in influence, 
for his thoughts remain in his works, and his memory 
is laid up as a sacred treasure in many minds. 
A spirit so beautiful ought to multiply itself in those 



148 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



to whom it is made known. May we all be incited 
by it to a more grateful, cheerful love to God, 
and serener, gentler, nobler love of our fellow- 
creatures. 



The fidelity of Dr. Ware has left but a few 
things to be added by the Editor. 

Soon after my father commenced preaching, he 
became extensively known. He was honored with 
the degrees of A. B. and A. M. by Dartmouth 
College, and with that of D. D. by Harvard Uni- 
versity in 1818. 

He wrote with uncommon rapidity and accuracy, 
but did not read so fast as many others. After his 
limbs became feeble in 1806, his habits were se- 
dentary ; and very few men are able to study so 
much as he did. I think that twenty years of his 
life may be selected, during which his average 
daily time of study was not less than fourteen 
hours. But he was very regular in taking exercise, 
as much as he felt able to bear, and of such kinds 
as best suited the state of his health. 

All his habits were marked by promptness, en- 
ergy, and punctuality. He rose very early during 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



149 



his whole life, and wanted his simple breakfast as 
soon as it could be prepared. He was then ready 
for the labors of the day ; worked with all his 
might at whatever seemed his duty ; desired and 
endeavored to have all labors go on very quietly, 
but with energy ; and, at an early hour in the 
evening, he was thankful that the time of rest had 
arrived. 

After he came to Brighton he preached many 
times in Boston and the neighboring towns ; but, 
for about twenty years before his death, his liability 
to spasmodic affections rendered it unsafe for him 
to attempt to preach. 

My father had four sons and six daughters by his 
first wife, but none by the second wife. The first 
daughter died in infancy, and the last was still- 
born, after the fall which was the cause of my 
mother's death. Four sons and four daughters 
lived to adult age. The youngest of these daugh- 
ters lived with him till his death, and had the prin- 
cipal care of him during the last seven or eight 
years of his life. 

After the year 1817, my step-mother had very 
little to do with the domestic concerns. She was 
almost wholly devoted to my father. She read a 
13* 



150 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



great deal to him, took care of his papers, folded 
and stitched his pamphlets, and rendered him every 
service that she could. The affairs of the house 
belonged to my sister. She was assisted for some 
years by a faithful niece, whose memory is very 
dear to all who knew her. But for the very com- 
fortable home which my father enjoyed during his 
last years, he was almost wholly indebted to my 
sister. She merited and received his full confi- 
dence. She watched over him and served him 
day and night ; and when she might sleep, she 
placed herself so near him, as to be aroused by the 
gentlest call. If he was enabled to be in any 
degree useful during this period of his life, the 
blessings of a peaceful home gave him this ability ; 
and my sister was the principal and often the sole 
medium, through whom the Lord bestowed these 
blessings. 

For many years my father was Postmaster at 
Brighton ; and in several cases when nearly all 
others were removed, he was not molested. The 
duties of the office devolved on my sister ; and 
when the business of the town had greatly increased, 
and large sums of money must lie in the office over 
night, my sister was fearful for its safety, and de- 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



151 



sired my father to resign. The increase of the 
village had also rendered the distance of the Post 
Office inconvenient to the people ; but their kind- 
ness to my father and sister prevented their 
complaining. And it is but an act of justice to 
the people of Brighton to say, that they treated 
my father with very great kindness and respect, 
and were always ready to bestow on him any favors 
which he desired. He was very sensible of their 
kindness, and I take great pleasure in recording it, 
and thanking them for it. 

It has been mentioned that my father was subject 
to paralytic affections, and also to turns of entire 
prostration of strength, arising probably from some 
degree of ossification of the heart or arteries. The 
first case of paralysis, and one of the severest 
which he ever suffered was, I think, in the summer 
of 1815. My younger brother and myself were 
sitting in the chamber, and heard our step-mother 
call us in a troubled tone of voice. On entering 
the sitting room we saw father on the floor, quiv- 
ering and speechless, and mother was trying to 
raise him. We set him in a chair, and soon saw 
that one side of him was paralyzed. We began 
to rub him, but were conscious that we knew not 



152 MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



what ought to be done. It so was, that I had a 
phial of aqua ammonise in my pocket ; and a thought 
that I ought to apply it came with much distinct- 
ness. We removed his coat, applied the wash to 
his hand, arm, shoulder, breast, and one side of 
his face, and also to his nose. He was instantly 
so sensible of relief, that he extended his tongue to 
have that also washed with the ammonise. He be- 
came able to speak within a few minutes, and also 
rose and walked to his room ; but his tongue and 
lips felt the effects of my harsh medicine for many 
days. He had less of these paralytic affections, 
and more of the other kind, in his later years. We 
doubted not that he would die in one of these 
spasms from disease of the heart ; but the violence 
of these spasms rather diminished after he was 
seventy years of age ; and, at last, his lungs which 
had seemed to be very good, became much dis- 
eased ; and he died of pulmonary consumption, 
Oct. 31, 1837. 

The ill turns which depended on a disease of the 
heart, rendered it necessary that he should avoid 
all occasions of excitement, and hence that he 
should keep at home. 

He was well aware that his body could not bear 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



153 



much excitement of the mind ; and he therefore 
generally avoided discussions with those who dif- 
fered from him. This gave to the last years of his 
life a more placid character, than properly belonged 
to him. He was constitutionally excitable ; and 
when his health was feeble, it took but little to dis- 
compose him. Those who visited him at Brighton 
were generally his warm friends, who came to ap- 
prove and encourage his works. In their presence 
he could be calm and happy ; and those who had 
known him more, and had constant intercourse 
with him, knew how to avoid what would trouble 
him. 

There was nothing harsh and vindictive in his 
character. When irritated he w T as severe ; but 
his deep and ever-active sense of justice and mercy, 
and his abhorrence of strife, always overcame his 
excitement so soon, that none were willing to 
remember it* 

For about five weeks before his death his health 
rapidly declined. He was quite conscious that he 
was failing, and said, — "I think I may not be 
here long, and I know not why I should desire to 
be." He took his last meal with the family one 
month before his death, but continued able to sit 



154 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 



up a part of each day till the last five days. He 
suffered much from indigestion, and his lungs were 
evidently diseased. He bore his severe pains with 
admirable fortitude. Near the last hour he was in 
much distress from pain in the left side. A part of 
the last day he seemed bewildered, but most of the 
time he was conscious of his condition, and was 
willing to die. 

His funeral took place at the meeting house in 
which he had worshipped during his residence at 
Brighton ; and the services were performed by the 
Rev. Daniel Austin. His body was placed in 
a tomb at Brighton, but was afterward removed to 
Mount Auburn, where a Monument with the fol- 
lowing inscription was erected to his memory. 



MEMOIRS OF NOAH WORCESTER. 

(On one side.) 
To 

NOAH WORCESTER, D. D. 
Erected by his Friends, 
In commemoration of zealous Labors 
In the Cause of Peace: 
And of the 
Meekness, Benignity, and Consistency 
Of his Character, 
As a 

Christian Philanthropist and Divin 
" Speaking the Truth in Love." 



(On the other side.) 

NOAH WORCESTER, 

Born at Hollis, N, H., Nov. 25, 1758: 

Died at Brighton, Mass., Oct. 31, 1837 

Aged 79 years. 

" Blessed are the Peacemakers, 
For they shall be called 
The Children of God." 



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' These lectures have long enjoyed a high reputation in Germany, . 
and other parts of Europe, and we hail with unfeigned pleasure their 
publication in this country. They are eminently original, profound 
and suggestive. 1 — New World. 

'Those interested in the study of ethics, will find in the present 
volumes, a beautiful richness of illustration, and an extended con- 
sideration of the practical duties of life : and although many readers 
will doubtless dissent from some of the author's principles, as from 
his application of them, the book merits a reading, as exhibiting the 
views of a philosophical and independent mind, and, at the same time, 
those which prevail to a great extent on the continent of Europe.' — 
American Eclectic. 

Bnckminster's Works. The Works of Joseph Ste- 
vens Buckminster ; with Memoirs of his Life. In two 
vols. 12mo. 

' One of the first religious books we remember to have read was 
the first volume of Buckminster's Sermons ; and the beautifully 
written life and two or three of the discourses fixed themselves in the 
mind, as nothing is fixed there save in our early years. 

' His sermons, as sermons, are certainly surpassed by none in the 
language.' — Monthly Miscellany. 



JAMES MTJNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 7 



De Wette on the Old Testament. A Critical and 
Historical Introduction to the Canonical Scriptures of 
the Old Testament. From the German of De Wette. 
Translated and enlarged by Theodore Parker. 2 vols. 
8vo. 

Parker's Miscellaneous Writings^ The Critical 
and Miscellaneous Writings of Theodore Parker, Min- 
ister of the Second Church in Roxbury. 

Contents. A Lesson for the Day; German Literature ; The Life 
of St. Bernard of Clairvaux : Truth against the World ; Thoughts on 
Labor; A Discourse of the Transient and Permanent in Christianity; 
The Pharisees ; On the Education of the Laboring Class ; How to 
move the World ; Primitive Christianity ; Strauss's Life of Jesus ; 
Thoughts on Theology. — 

' We are glad to see these miscellanies republished, and think all 
who read them will enjoy their spirit even when they disagree with 
their doctrines. The tone of earnest conviction, the glow of feeling, 
the occasional beauty of expression in these pages, is very refreshing,' 
— Merchants' Magazine. 

' The essays are written in a style which combines the plainness of 
Cobbett with just the slightest sprinkling of modern literary Euphu- 
ism ; a combination less unattractive than might at the first blush be 
inferred from such a coalition.' — Knickerbocker. 

Parker's Discourses. A Discourse on Matters per- 
taining to Religion. By Theodore Parker, Minister of 
the Second Church in Roxbury. 

Farr's Counsels and Consolations : Containing 
Meditations and Reflections on sixty-two passages of 
Scripture, with particular reference to those in trouble 
and affliction ; to which are added four sermons, suited 
to persons in distressing and mournful circumstances. 
By Jonathan Farr. Second Edition. Enlarged by 
several Prayers, and an Address to those who have 
been afflicted. 1 vol. 18mo. 

' This volume is eminently a work of compassion, it is medicine, 
food, and air for the afflicted lonely ones. That medicine is com- 
pounded of ingredients gathered in the garden of the Lord ; that food 
is the bread which came down from heaven ; that air is the zephyry 
odor, which comes from the paradise of God. Let the mentally 
debilitated take, eat, breathe, and revive.' — London Christian Pioneer. 



8 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



An Offering of Sympathy to the Afflicted : Es- 
pecially to Parents bereaved of their Children. Being 
a collection from Manuscripts never before published, 
With an Appendix of Extracts. By Francis Parkman. 
Third Edition. 18mo. 

4 Though small, it is rich in comfort and instruction. Prepared by 
the editor in a season of peculiar personal affliction, it contains many 
of his own thoughts, with the judicious selections which he made 
from books from which he drew consolation, besides the original 
articles which at his request . were furnished by his brethren in the 
ministry. In the present edition not only is the Appendix — of Ex- 
tracts — enlarged, but an original article is given not found in the 
former editions.' — Monthly Miscellany. 

1 We are not surprised that Dr. Parkman's excellent little volume 
has reached a third edition. It has carried comfort to many a heart 
We wish it well on its errand of peace.' — Christian Examiner. 

' A volume deserving a cordial welcome to every house and heart* 
The variety of thought and expression, and yet the perfect harmony 
of tone of feeling which marks this spiritual wreath for a christian 
cemetery, will make it live and bloom as long as sorrow is known.' — 
Hunt's Magazine. 

The Holy Land and its Inhabitants. By S. G. 

Bulfinch. Being a description of this interesting coun- 
try, and also a History of it, Ancient and Modern, its 
Antiquities, &c. &c. 

Lives of Eminent Unitarians ; with a Notice of 
Dissenting Academies, containing Lives of Robertson, 
Palmer, Priestley, Price, and others. By the Rev. W. 
Turner, Jim., M. A. 2 vols. 12mo. 

Henry Ware, Jr. Views of Christian Truth, Piety, 
and Morality, Selected from the Writings of Dr. Priest- 
ley. With a Memoir of his Life. By Henry Ware, 
Jr. 12mo. pp. 288. 

1 Mr. Ware has here erected a noble and enduring monument of the 
pure and truly Christian character of one of the most gifted and single- 
hearted of Christian confessors. The Memoir, compiled for the most 
part from Dr. Priestley's own letters, and other writings, and drawn 
up with care, is interesting throughout, and full of instruction. The 
same may also be said of the selection of sermons, and other pieces 
which make up the body of the work : for they are almost exclusively 
practical, and present ' views of Christian truth, piety, and morality,' 
remarkable for their good sense, strictness, and discrimination.'— 
Christian Examiner. 



JAMES MUNE.OE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 9 



Ware on Christian Character. On the Formation 
of Christian Character, addressed to those who are 
seeking to lead a Religious Life. By Henry Ware, 
Jr., D. D. Twelfth Edition. 18mo. 

Henry Ware, Jr.'s Hints on Extemporaneous 
Preaching", with rules for its government. Third 
Edition. 

1 It is the object of this little work to draw the attention of those 
who are preparing for the Christian ministry, or who have just 
entered it, to a mode of preaching, which the writer thinks has been 
too much discountenanced and despised : but which under proper 
restrictions, he is persuaded may add greatly to the opportunities of 
ministerial usefulness.' — The Preface. 

Ware's Life of the Savior. The Life of the Savior. 
By Henry Ware, Jr., Professor of Pulpit Eloquence 
and the Pastoral Care in Harvard University, pp. 284. 
Fourth Edition. 18mo. 

' If we can suppose any person to be a stranger to the Gospel his- 
torians, in a Christian land, we think Professor Ware's narrative with 
its illustrations would be to such a person a work of unequalled in- 
terest in biography, provided he possessed a common share of moral 
sensibility. To one somewhat acquainted with those histories, perused, 
as they usually are, under great disadvantages in our common ver- 
sion, in small, detached portions, and without any helps, this ' Life of 
the Savior ' affords assistance, in various ways, at once in a more 
popular and a more intelligible form than can elsewhere be found, so 
far as we know. This volume is intended particularly for the young; 
but it is a valuable aid to every reader of the Gospels ; an aid to the 
understanding of them, and an aid to reflections upon their truths. It 
unites, in some good measure, the advantages of a paraphrase and a' 
commentary, without the feebleness of the former, or the dryness of 
the latter.' — American Monthly Review. 

Henry Ware, Jr's. Scenes and Characters, Illus- 
trating Christian Truth. In a series of Tales, each 
number complete in itself. To be had separately. 
Edited by the Rev. H. "Ware, Jr. 

' If we may judge of this series of little works from the two numbers 
which have appeared, we should say that it bids fair to be eminently 
useful, and to realize whatever we might expect from the high 
character of the writers engaged. They should be read. Whoever 
contributes at all to circulate them does good to the public' — Boston 
Daily Advertiser. 



10 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



1. TRIAL KM SELF-DISCIPLINE. By Miss Savage, Author of ' James 
Talbot.' 

' If the remaining numbers shall be executed with the same skill, 
and the same deep religious feelings which pervade the first, these 
little volumes will be an important addition to the works which make 
religion attractive and lovely.' — Christian Register. 

% THE SCEPTIC. By Mrs. Men, Author of ' The Well-spent Hour.' 

' This is an admirable little book, which no one will dip into without 
reading through, and no one will read through without being improved 
and delighted. The argumentative portions are clear and forcible, and 
are naturally and skilfully interwoven with the web of the story. 
The characters are conceived and sustained wonderfully well, and 
never were the Christian graces more beautifully and consistently 
displayed than in the life and conversation of Alice Grey. We owe a 
debt of gratitude to the writer who gives us so natural and true a pic- 
ture of the influence of Christianity upon our daily and hourly duties, 
and of the mighty power which it bestows upon the character and 
affections.' — Boston Observer. 

I HOME. By Miss Sedgwick, Author of < Redwood; &c. 

' The influence of an enlightened mind and pure heart is shed, like 
sunshine, over all that Miss Sedgwick writes.' — Mrs. Child. 

1 One of the sweetest homely pictures of domestic life among the 
middle classes of New England, which it is possible to imagine, and 
one full of the instruction which makes a way to the heart.' — Taifs 
Magazine. 

4. GLEAMS OF TRUTH. By the Rev. Joseph Tnekennan, P. D. 

' This little work differs from its predecessors in being not a ficti- 
tious, and connected narrative, but a collection of detached facts, 
anecdotes, and conversations, which actually occurred within the 
writers own experience. This difference, while it adds to its value, 

will not make it less interesting, but the contrary Truth 

is strange, and stranger than fiction, and the most creative imagina- 
tion could not have conceived more striking and consistent illustra- 
tions of Christian character than are here presented to us to admire 

and imitate Nothing can be more elevating, inspiring, and 

encouraging, than the instances which he has here given us.' — Boston 
Observer. 

k THE BACKSLIDES. By the Author of the ■ Hugenots,' &c. 

' The Blackslider is intended to illustrate the influence of Chris- 
tianity on minds differently constituted, particularly on the two prin- 
cipal characters of the story. In Anna Hope, we see its effects on a 
mind naturally well balanced. In Walter we see the good seed scat- 
tered on the thin soil ; and it is the aim of the writer to show where 
the lack of root is.' ' Such fictions as the one before us, by their 
faithful and graphic representations of human nature, affect us foj 
the time like reality.' — Christian Examiner. 



JAMES MUN.RO E AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 11 



6. ALFRED ; or, the Effects of True Repentance. And the BETTER 
PART. By the Author of ' Sophia Morton.' 

Mrs. Farrar's Life of John Howard, the Philan* 
thropist, with a Preface by Bev. Henry Ware, Jr. 

This volume gives an interesting narrative of the Life and also oT 
the various undertakings of this eminent philanthropist ; it is written 
with all the vigor of the other works of its author. 

Memoir of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, (Minister to 
the Poor.) By Rev. W. E. Channing. 18mo. 

JoufFroy's Ethics. Introduction to Ethics : including 
a Critical Survey of Moral Systems. Translated from 
the French of Jouffroy. By William H. Channing. 

This work consists of a critical review of various ethical systems 5 
aiming to give a fair view of the merits and demerits of each, with 
especial regard to the particular points wherein lay the faultiness of 
each. To every student of moral philosophy, and of the history of 
the human mind, such a sketch must be of very great interest and 
value. 

Burnap's Lectures to Young Men; on the culti- 
vation of the Mind, the formation of Character, and 
the Conduct of Life. Second Edition. By George W. 
Burnap. 1 vol 12mo. 

1 Remarkable for the intelligent spirit which they display, and trite 
sound moral instructions conveyed.' — Phila. Ledger. 

Lectures on the Sphere and Duties of Woman, 

and other subjects. By George W. Burnap. 1 vol 
12mo. 

* The duties of Women, and especially of American females, arte 
ably defined, and correctly animadverted on. We take pleasure in 
recommending it as a work that all parents should place in the hands 
of their daughters, and the husband in that of his wife.' — N. Y. Lady's 
Companion. 

' We commend the book to the attention of every female, whether 
young or old, and whatever station she may fill. They will find a 
true friend in the author, and cannot fail to draw improvement from 
his admonitions.' — Boston Courier. 

Lectures on the History of Christianity. By 

George W. Burnap. 1 vol. 12 mo. 



12 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



Memoir of James Jackson, Jr. M. D. written by 
his Father, with extracts from his Letters, and remin- 
iscences of him by a Fellow Student. 18mo. 

Memoir of Nathaniel Bowditch, (the Mathemati- 
cian.) 18mo. 

Dewey's Sermons. Discourses on various subjects* 
By Rev. Orville Dewey. 3 vols. 12mo. 

W. H. Furness. Jesus and his Biographers ; or the 
remarks on the Four Gospels, revised with copious 
additions. By W. H. Furness. 1 vol. 8vo. 

Ripley's Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature* 
Edited by George Ripley. 14 vols 12mo. 

Volumes 12 and 13, containing De WETTE'S HUMAN 
LIFE. See page 6. 

Volume 14. SONGS AND BALLADS. With notes. 
Translated by Charles T. Brooks. 

The Unitarian. Conducted by Bernard Whitman. 
8vo. pp. 590. 

Meditations for the Sick. By Jonathan Cole. 1 8ma 

Tracts of the American Unitarian Association. 

In 15 vols. 12mo. 

Christian Disciple. 6 volumes, 8vo. 
Christian Examiner, complete to 1844. 35 vols. 

The pages of this work have heen enriched hy contributions from 
the pens of Worcester, Channing, Norton, Greenwood, Ware, and 
others. 

Henry Ware 9 D. B. An Inquiry into the Foundation, 
Evidences, and Truths of Religion. By Henry Ware, 
D. Do late Hollis Professor of Divinity in Harvard 
College. 2 vols. 12mo. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 13 



Theodore; or the Skeptic's Conversion. Translated 
from the German of De Wette. By James F. Clarke. 
2 vols. 12mo. 

Sparks's Essays and Tracts. A Collection of Es- 
says and Tracts in Theology. From various Authors, 
with Biographical and Critical Notices. By Jared 
Sparks. 6 vols. 12mo. 

Unitarian Miscellany, and Christian Monitor. Edited 
by Rev. Jared Sparks, and Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood. 
6 vols. 12mo. 

The Young Maiden. By Rev. A. B. Mussey. Fourth 
Edition. 

'It will be perused with advantage by the class for whom it is 
especially designed, and will secure the favorable judgment of their 
most judicious friends.' — London Inquirer. 

The Young Man's Friend. By A. B. Mussey. 18mo. 
Second Edition. 

Week Day Religion. By Rev. Bernard Whitman. 
18mo. 

Gieseler's Text Book of Ecclesiastical History. By J. 
C. I. Gieseler, Doctor of Philosophy and Theology, 
and Professor of Theology in Gottingen. Translated 
from the Third German Edition by Francis Cunning- 
ham. 3 vols. 8vo. 

Observations on the Bible, for the use of Young Per- 
sons. 12mo. 

Locke on the Epistles. A Paraphrase and Notes 
on the Epistles of St Paul to the Galatians, First and 
Second Corinthians, Romans, and Ephesians. To 
which is prefixed an Essay for the Understanding of 
St. Paul's Epistles, by consulting St. Paul himself. By 
John Locke. 8vo. pp. 4-5G. 

The Dial. Published quarterly, 16 numbers now out. 
Edited by R. W. Emerson. 

A few complete sets only remaining on hand. 

2 



14 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



JUST PUBLISHED. 

LECTURES 

ON 

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 

By Andrew P. Peabody, Pastor of the South Church, 
Portsmouth, 1 vol. 12mo. 

ENDEAVORS 

AFTER THE 

CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
A Volume of Discourses by James Martineau. 12mo. 

Contents. The Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ; The Besetting 
God; Great Principles and Small Duties; Eden and Gethsemane ; 
Sorrow no Sin ; Christian Peace ; Religion on False Pretences ; 
Mammon Worship ; The Kingdom of God within us, Part I ; The 
Kingdom of God within us, Part II; The Contentment of Sorrow; 
Immortality; The* Communion of Saints; Christ's Treatment of 
Guilt; The Strength of the Lonely; Hand and Heart; Silence and 
Meditation ; Winter Worship ; The Great Year of Providence ; Christ 
and the Little Child ; The Christianity of Old Age ; Nothing Human 
ever Dies. — 1 

' These discourses form part of an extensive plan; and may he con- 
sidered not so much a separate work, as an introduction to a complete 
treatise on the Christian character and life. Their object is to awaken 
the Christian spirit, rather than to describe the perfect Christian life ; 
and while they inculcate specific duties and warn against specific 
sins, their leading design is to excite and strengthen the devout spirit 
that will lead us always to perform all duties. 

' We recommend the volume to our readers as the production of an 
enlightened Christian mind, full of earnestness and power and love of 
souls. It was composed because the author had something to say On 
the highest subjects of human thought, because his heart overflows 
with sympathy for the ills of man, and because he has felt for himself 
the blessedness of laboring for their removal. He is an enthusiast ; 
but an intelligent one, who does not expect to remove social evils by 
the application of any fine-spun political system, but by awakening 
in each individual heart some mighty emotion, that shall lead to the 
reformation of that individual life. 

' The discourses on the Kingdom of God within us, on Great Prin- 
ciples and Small Duties^ on Immortality and the Great Year of Provi- 
dence, are particularly interesting and instructive.' — Monthly Miscellany 



LETTERS ON EPISCOPACY. By Jared Sparks, 
Second Edition, with large additions 1 vol. 12mo. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 15 



NEW HYMN BOOK. 

The Social Hymn Book, consisting of Psalms and 
Hymns, for Social Worship and Private Devotion. 
"With 28 pages music. 

' It is designed to supply the want which is helieved to be increasing, 
of a small and cheap Hymn Book for vestry meetings, and for parishes 
that are unable to procure more expensive collections.' — The Preface. 

' The collection contains 360 Hymns, 14 Doxologies, 21 Sacred 
tunes. There are somewhat more than 130 of the Hymns which are 
not found in Dr. Greenwood's, of these a portion are found in some of 
the other collections ; a part of them are truly exquisite and beautiful, 
and ought to appear in every collection. 

' The hymns which Mr. Robbins has introduced, in general do 
credit to his taste and reading. Some of those from Bishop Mant's 
Collection of Ancient Hymns seem harsh to most readers on a first 
perusal, but familiarity renders them highly attractive and stores the 
heart with rich and beautiful sentiments.' — Christian Register. 

' In looking over this work, we are happy to recognize a number 
of our favorite hymns, the omission of which in other collections 
we have always regretted. The Book breathes the spirit of the con- 
ference room, and is at the same time well adapted, as it is in part 
intended, ' for parishes that are unable to procure more expensive col- 
lections.' ' — Salem Observer. 

' This is an admirable selection of devotional hymns, and will, 
doubtless, become a favorite one for the purposes for which it was 
designed. The collection was made by Rev. Chandler Robbins, of 
this city, whose name, alone, is a sufficient guaranty for its excel- 
lence. We hail this little work, as one among the signs we daily see, 
of interest in the work of enlivening the whole Church, and bringing 
us all into an active, visible cooperation. 

' We ought to say in addition, that at the close of the book are 
placed some twenty, or more, of the most beautiful and popular tunes 
used at social religious meetings.' — Christian World. 

' We welcome, with the rest, the graceful little volume before us, as 
supplying a want, which has been sensibly felt in a department of our 
social worship, and as well adapted to private and domestic devotion. 
The excellence of its typographical execution invites attention, which 
will be amply rewarded by its skilfully selected and arranged con- 
tents. 

' For infant and feeble parishes, ' unable to procure more expen- 
sive collections ; ' for the meetings of the vestry and all other social 
services among Christians ; for the private and domestic altar we 
cordially recommend the Selection before us. It unites the indispen- 
sable grace of a Christian spirit, by which it is pervaded, with poetic 
beauty ; and so entire is its freedom from doubtful or sectarian phrase- 
ology, thai it may easily become the manual, and a favorite one too, of 
Christians of various denominations.' — Monthly Miscellany. 

Already used in several parishes. Copies furnished to clergy 
and others, for examination. 



16 JAMES MUNItOE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



MANUALS 

FOR 

SABBATH SCHOOLS. 

Livermore's Commentary- 2 vols. See page L 

A Catechism of Natural Theology. By I. Nichols, 
D. D., Pastor of the First Church in Portland. Third 
Edition, with additions and improvements. 12mo. 
Plates. 

' Dr. Nichols has prefixed to his work the appropriate motto, ' Every 
house is builded by some man ; but he that built all things is God ; ' 
and the work is a very happy illustration of its motto. It is devoted 
principally to an examination of the human frame, and it is shown 
that the conformation of its various parts, and their adaptation to the 
purposes which they are known to serve, could not have happened 
without the design of an intelligent Creator. It is better adapted to 
the comprehension of youth and common readers, than the more 
elaborate and extended treatises of Paley and others ; and next to the 
Holy Scriptures, is one of the most interesting and useful fields of 
contemplation which could be spread out before them. If any person 
can peruse this little book without feeling a kindred emotion, and 
forming a similar puipose, the fact would be an affecting proof of the 
alienation of the heart from its Maker. When it is remembered that 
Jlthcism is among the spreading errors of our land, we see an addi- 
tional reason for directing our youth to such intellectual pursuits, as 
will furnish the best defences against this arch heresy ; and such we 
regard the contents of the work under review. We are glad that a 
new edition of the work has been demanded, and that it makes its 
appearance in a style of execution so worthy of its matter.' — Chris- 
tian Mirror, Portland, Me. 

Hints to Sunday School Teachers, in a series of 
Familiar Lectures. By Rev. T. B. Fox, ISmo. price 

25 cents. 

Allen's Questions. Parts 1, 2, and 3. 18mo. 

Walker's Service Book. l8mo. 

Fox's Sunday School Prayer Book. l8mo. 

Child's Duties and Devotions. l8mo. 

The Ministry of Christ, with Questions. By Rev, 
T. B. Fox. 18mo, 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 17 



Peabody's Sunday School Hymn Book. lSmo. 

Channing's, Worcester Association, Rhode Island, and 
Carpenter's Catechisms. 

Life of the Savior. By Rev. H. Ware, Jr. 18mo. 
see page 9. 

Scripture Truths in Questions and Answers, for the 
use of Sunday Schools and Families. 18mo. pp. 75. 

' The writer of this little manual has not attempted to do- better 
where others have done well. Nor is this simply another Sunday- 
School hook — though that would be no objection. It is in facta 
new Sunday School book. It enters a province which has heretofore 
been kept shut, at least in the schools of Liberal Christians ; viz. the 
province of doctrine. ^ * * With these views we welcome this book. 
Every question that is apt to arise, concerning God, Christ, Faith, 
Ordinances, Prayer, Repentance, &c. &c, is answered by a passage of 
Scripture ; and there are very few passages that do not contain fair 
answers and sufficient exposition for the young. The controverted 
and most difficult texts are more fully explained, yet with great sim- 
plicity, in notes, and also an Appendix, In the hands of well in- 
structed and judicious teachers, no one, we think, would doubt the 
utility of such a manual. In families, to be used by parents, it is 
excellent. Indeed for general use we feel free to commend it. The 
plan and execution as a whole we like, and hope a fair trial will be 
given it.' — Monthly Miscellany. 

1 We are ignorant of the name of the Author of this little book, but 
we think he has done good service to the cause of religious instruc- 
tion. We are not in favor of the multiplication of manuals for the 
use of Sunday Schools, but the arrangement and plan of this work, 
are such as to make it a valuable assistant to any parent and Sunday 
School Teacher.' — Christian Register. 

The Sunday School Teacher's Guide. By A. B. 

Muzzey. 18mo. 

J. M. & Co. being engaged in the publication of 
Juvenile Works, can offer to individuals and others, 
selecting for Sabbath, School, and District Libraries, 
superior advantages. And they keep constantly on 
hand the largest assortment of Juveniles to be found, 
embracing all the works by Mary Howitt, Mrs. Ellis, 
Aunt Kitty, Charlotte Elizabeth, The Abbotts, and others, 
All of which will be sold at a LARGE DISCOUNT, 
from the trade prices. 

O^p" 3000 volumes now on hand. 
2* 



18 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



Hours for Heaven : a small but choice Selection of 
Prayers, from Eminent Divines of the Church of Eng- 
land. Intended as a Devotional Companion for Young 
Persons. 32mo. gilt edges. 

' This is a little manual of devotion, consisting of prayers and 
meditations for each day in the week, with additions of prayers for 
particular occasions. 

' To the prayers are added many miscellaneous pieces in prose and 
verse, suited for aids to devotion ; and, lastly, several weighty religious 
aphorisms. 

' There are here and there forms of invocation, and single expres- 
sions, from which we dissent ; hut the spirit, and, with few exceptions, 
the language, is such that we do not fear to recommend the hook to 
serious Christians of all denominations.' — Christian Register. 

' A choice selection of prayers from eminent Divines which is 
designed as a devotional companion. It is an elegant little volume, 
nicely printed and bound, and its contents will be very acceptable to 
any that may read them occasionally, as designed.' — Ploughman. 

Farr's Prayers. Forms of Morning and Evening 
Prayer, composed for the use of Families. By Jona- 
than FaiT. 16mo. pp. 174. 

; The ' Forms of Morning and Evening Prayer' are among the best 
that have come under our notice, — at once calm and fervent, scriptu- 
ral and rational : for which reason we doubt not that they will find 
general favor among those who are accustomed to avail themselves of 
such helps to private or domestic devotion. The volume is very 
neatly printed and done up, and contains prayers for every day in a 
fortnight, and eight morning and evening prayers for any day in the 
"week, and a great variety of occasional prayers for families, and for 
individuals.' — Christian Examiner. 

Se well's Daily Devotions, for a Family, with occa- 
sional Prayers. Second Edition. 12mo. 

Greenwood's Chapel Liturgy ; collected principally 
from the Book of Common Prayer. Fifth Edition; 
with Family Prayers and Services, and other Addi- 
tions. ByF. W. P. Greenwood. 12mo. 



MANUALS 



FOE, 




DEVOTION. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 19 



Brooks's Prayers. A Family Prayer Book, and Pri- 
vate Manual ; to which are added, Forms for Religious 
Societies and Schools, with a Collection of Hymns. 
By Charles Brooks, Minister of the Third Church in 
Hingham, Massachusetts. 12mo. 

■ Both as to its substance and form, it is a work of an excellent 
design, and well calculated to answer its design ; and considering how 
much it is wanted amongst us, and how much good it may do, we are 
happy in having this opportunity to recommend it most cordially.' — 
Christian Disciple. 

Bowring's Matins and Vespers ; with Hymns and 
Occasional Devotional Pieces. By John Bowring. 
London. 18mo. Price 50 cents. 

' There is in them a frequent display, or rather the presence without 
the display, of a tenderness and pathos, an elegant simplicity and 
devotional feeling, which win upon the heart, and sometimes touch it 
as with strains from unearthly worlds. There is no drama, no tale, 
no controversy in these poems ; they are truly ' Matins and Vespers.' 
They charm by their modesty and sensibility, and by a deep venera- 
tion of, and an ardent expression of gratitude towards, our Almighty 
Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor. Many of the pictures in them of 
the love and compassion of God towards his creatures are truly beau- 
tiful and affecting.' — Christian Observer, London. 

Furness's Domestic Worship. By "W. H. Furness, 
Pastor of the First Congregational Unitarian Church 
in Philadelphia. Second Edition. 12mo. 

' The prayers are divided into sections and are not specially appro- 
priated to the several days of the week; that opportunity may be 
given for selection, omission, and variety.' — The Preface. 

The Social Kymn Book ; consisting of Psalms and 
Hymns for Social Worship and Private Devotion. 
Compiled by Rev. Chandler Robbins. 16mo. 

Devotional Exercises. Compiled by J. T Bucking- 
ham. 18mo. Third Edition. 

1 We like this little volume extremely. The plan is happy and it is 
executed with exceedingly good judgment and taste.' — K JL. Review. 

'This unpre'endin? little volume is compiled from the Book of 
Proveibs, the Book of Psalms, and the Gospels. The compiler has 
executed his task with excellent judgment, and we most heartily 
recommend it.' — Salem Observer. 



20 JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



HISTORY 

OF THE 

HAWAIIAN OR SANDWICH ISLANDS, 

Embracing their Antiquities, Legends, Discovery by 
Europeans in the Sixteenth Century, Rediscovery by 
Cook, with their Civil, Religious, and Political History, 
from the earliest period to the present time. By 
James Jackson Jarves-, Member of the Am. Oriental 
Society. With Maps and Plates. 8vo. 

' The book is carefully prepared and furnishes a highly attractive 
narrative. The ground over which the author has passed has been 
almost entirely untrod before him, and the history will be quite new, 
w r e believe, to almost all readers. It is a history full of its passages 
of romance, — for these islands have not been exempted from the 
stirring excitements of larger communities.' — Boston Daily Advertiser. 

' The work bears the marks of great attention and patient research; 
the narrative is easy, flowing, and spirited, in a style adapted to the 
subject.' — Philadelphia Christian Observer. 

1 Mr. J. has produced an excellent and permanently valuable book.' 
— Boston Recorder. 

' It supplies a deficiency in out literature, and is finished in such a 
manner that it will not have to be done again. This work will be a 
favorite ; it affords information not easily found elsewhere, and if 
attainable at all, only to be collected by great labor, and from a variety 
of sources.' — Baptist Memorial and Monthly Chronicle. 

N. HAWTHORNE' S TWICE TOLD TALES. 2 
vols. 12mo. Cloth. 

1 A whole volume of collected Miscellanies of great merit is before 
tis. We mean Mr. Hawthorne's ' Twice Told Tales,' which will one 
day or other be naturalized into our Library of Romance, if truth, 
fancy, pathos, and originality, have any longer power to diffuse a 
reputation. He has caught the true fantastic spirit, which somewhere 
or other exists in every society, be it ever so utilitarian and practical, 
linking the seen to the unseen, the matter of fact to the imaginative. 
As a recounter of mere legends, Mr. Hawthorne claims high praise. 
We cannot too heartily commend this book as the best addition that 
has been made to what may be called the Fairy Library, which has 
been made for many years.' — London Foreign ay\d Colonial Quarterly 
Review. 

'To this little work we would say, ' Live ever, sweet, sweet book.' 
It comes from the hand of a man of genius. Every thing about it has 
the freshness of morning and of May. A calm, thoughtful face seems 
to be looking at you from every page. — N. A. Review. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 21 



SCENES AND SCENERY 

IN THE 

SANDWICH ISLANDS, 

And a trip through Central America: being observa- 
tions from my Note-book during the years 1837-1842. 
By James J. Jarves, Author of the History of the 
Sandwich Islands, &c, embellished with Map and 4 
plates. 

' Mr. Jarves has enjoyed peculiar advantages for acquiring an accu- 
rate knowledge of the past and present condition of this people, their 
manners and customs, and the natural features and resources of the 
islands ; and of these he has fully availed himself. He seems to have 
written without fear or prejudice, desirous of doing ample justice to 
missionary effort, and exposing the more than savage outrage of for- 
eign residents and visiters, some of them high in official station, with 
fearlessness. 

' From the two works of Mr. J., a more accurate idea of the islands 
may he obtained, than from any other source. There is much liveli- 
ness in his narrative ; and an occasional imperfection in the structure 
of a sentence, or the inexact use of a word, shows that he did not 
write in fetters. In his ' Sketches,' particularly, he has managed so 
to intermingle the offensive and the ludicrous, the beautiful and the 
economical, as to portray well the peculiar transition state of this 
people. Whoever would find an account of the Sandwich Islands, 
Doth amusing and instructive, will not fail to read Mr. J.'s books.' — 
Christian Review. 

' The book before us, written by Mr. James Jackson Jarves, is illus- 
trative of the recent progress of religion, science, and refinement in 
that most interesting group — the Sandwich Islands. 

' We rarely read a book of this class from beginning to end : to the 
volume before us, however, we have paid this compliment. It con- 
tains many provincialisms, and, strange to say, a few grammatical 
errors ; yet we like the spirit in which it is written, and the vividness 
with which the author paints novel scenes in the North Pacific' — 
New World. 

SONGS AND BALLADS. 

Translated from Uhland, Korner, Burger, and other 
German Lyric Poets, with notes. By Charles T. 
Brooks. 

' In this volume we have presented to us a string of beautiful pearls. 

1 The typographical execution of the work is good, and the pub- 
lishers merit commendation. We think the volume well worthy a 
place among the selected poetry of the day.' — American Eclectic. 



22 JAMES MTJNROE AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 



MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS. 

CARLYLE'S MISCELLANIES. 4 vols. 

SARTOR RESARTUS. Fourth American Edition. 
HEROES OF HISTORY. 1 vol. 
FRENCH REVOLUTION. 2 vols. 
WILHELM MEISTER. 3 vols. 
PAST AND PRESENT. 1 vol. 
CHARTISM. 1 vol. 

GERMAN ROMANCE: Specimens of its chief 
authors ; with Biographical and Critical Notices. By Thomas 
Carlyle. 2 vols. 12mo. 

ESSAYS BY R. W. EMERSON. 1 vol. 

Contents. History; Self Reliance; Compensation; Spiritual 

Laws ; Love ; Friendship ; Prudence ; Heroism ; The Over Soul ; 

Circles ; Intellect ; Art. 

NATURE. By R. W. Emerson. 

LIFE OF CRABBE THE POET. By his Son. 12mo. 

THE HAMLETS, A TALE. By Miss Martineau. 2d. Ed. 18mo. 

PIERPONT'S POEMS, now first collected. 16mo. 

POLITE LITERATURE IN GERMANY. Translated by Geo. 

W. Haven. 16mo. 
COLERIDGE'S CONFESSIONS OF AN INQUIRING SPIRIT. 
AIDS TO REFLECTION. By S. T. Coleridge. 8vo. 
TUCKER'S LIGHT OF NATURE PURSUED, with a Memoir. 

4 vols. 8vo. 

GUIZOT'S ESSAY ON THE INFLUENCE AND CHARAC- 
TER OF WASHINGTON. 16mo. 

GREENWOOD'S SERMONS, with a Memoir. 2 vols. 12mo. 

STEWART'S ELEMENTS OF THE HUMAN MIND. Svo. 4th 
Edition. 

CHANNING'S WORKS, Edited by the Author. 6 vols. 12mo. 
SUNDAY LIBRARY FOR YOUNG PERSONS. 4 vols. 18mo. 
HOLMES'S ANNALS OF AMERICA. 2 vols. 8vo. 
HISTORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. By B. Peirce. 8vo. 
MARY HOWITT'S, STRIVE AND THRIVE. 

HOPE ON! HOPE EVER. 
" SOWING AND REAPING. 

WHO SHALL BE GREATEST ? 
" TALES IN PROSE. 

TALES IN VERSE. 

TALES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY'S CATALOGUE. 23 



STANDARD WORKS. 



Bancroft's U. S. 3 vols. 

Sparks's Life of Washington. 1 vol. 

" American Biography. 10 vols. 
Franklin's Works. 10 vols. 
Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella. 3 v. 

" Mexico. 3 vols. 
Burke's Works. 9 vols. 
Stephens's Central America. 2 vols. 

" Yucatan. 2 vols. 

" Arabia Petns. 2 vols. 

" Greece, &c. 2 vols. 
Story's Writing-s. 1 vol. 
Shakspeare. Various Editions. 
Milton's Poetical Works. 2 vols. 

" Prose Works. 2 vols. 
Cowper's Poems. 2 vols. 
Longfellow's Poems. 3 vols. 
Encyclopedia Americana. 13 vols. 
Miss Bremer's Works. 1 vol. 
Edgeworlh's " 10 vols. 
Hannah More's " 2 vols. 
Sherwood's " 8 vols. 
Butler's Works. 2 vols. 
Spenser's " 5 vols. 
Channing's " 6 vols. 
Henry Ware's Works. 
Charlotte Elizabeth's Works. 



Greenwood's Works. 
Follen's " 5 vols. 

Heman's " 5 vols. 

Whittier, Tennyson, Leigh Hunt, Scott, 
Barry Cornwall, and Lowell's Poems. 
Burns's Works. 1 vol. 
Aiken's British Poets. 8vo. 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 
Lamb's Complete Works. 8vo. 
Herbert's Poems and Remains. 2 vols. 
Latrobe's Scripture Illustrations. 4to. 
D'Aubigne's Reformation. 3 vols. 
Neander's Church History. 
Bible in Spain. 

Milman's History of Christianity. 
Buckminster's Works. 2 vols. 12mo. 
Life of Jean Paul Richter. 2 vols. 
Peabody's Doctrinal Discourses. 12mo. 
Allison's History of Europe. 4 vols. 
8vo. 

Carlyle's Works. 14 vols. 12mo. 
Poets and Poetry of America. 
Buckminster's Works. 2 vols. 
Walter Scott's Novels, Poems, and Life, 

uniform. 39 vols. 
Paley's Works. 6 vols. 
Young's Old English Prose Writers. 9 v. 



MRS. SIGOURNEY'S 
PLEASANT MEMORIES OF PLEASANT LANDS. 2d. Ed. with additions. 

16mo. Illustrated with two beautiful Engravings. Cloth. 

' It has all the charms which characterize the works of William 
Howitt, besides its poetical illustrations of some of the most romantic 
spots known over the wide earth.' — Christian Register. 

1 It contains a variety of articles, suggested by a recent visit to Great 
Britain, in poetry and prose, but all of a superior order, and all calcu- 
lated to enchain the attention of the reader, — and while the beautiful 
description of scenes abroad tends to enlighten, the elegant language 
and the elevated sentiments must purify the heart.' 

NEAT MINIATURE VOLUMES, IN CLOTH, GILT EDGES. 

Channing's Self-Culture; Hours for Heaven: Pure Gold; Sentiment 
of Flowers ; Hemans, Wordsworth, Campbell, and Bowrings Poetical 
Works: Casket of Four Jewels; Bible and the Closet; Marriage Ring; 
Daily Manna; Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia; Vicar of Wakefield; 
Goldsmith's Essays; Gems from American Poets: Hannah More's 
Private Devotion ; Token of the Heart ; Paul and Virginia ; Flower 
Vase; Gems from Female Poets; Scott's Poetical Works, 3 vols.; 
Coleridge's Poetical Works ; Barton's Poems ; Remember Me ; Queen 
of Flowers. 



JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, 

Publishers, Booksellers, and Stationers, 

134 WASHINGTON STREET, 
BOSTON, 

KEEP CONSTANTLY ON HAND A LARGE ASSORTMENT OF 
MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS, SUITABLE FOR CITY, 
TOWN, AND VILLAGE LIBRARIES. 

|£7="PERSONAL ATTENTION PAID TO ALL ORDERS ENTRUSTED TO THEIR CARE. 

SCHOOL BOOKS, ALL THE VARIETIES IN USE IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

Books imported to order, in large or small quantities, 
by every steamer ; and answers to orders received in 
thirty to sixty days. Orders from incorporated institu- 
tions, executed free of duty. 

Particular attention paid to the furnishing of Juvenile 
Libraries, either Sabbath or Day School, and as low as 
can be procured anywhere in the city. 

Merchants, School Committees, and Teachers, supplied 
with Books and Stationery at a large discount from Trade 
Prices. 

J. M. & Co. are also publishers of 

THE 

AMERICAN ALMANAC, 
6 8 3 M AND 

REPOSITORY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 

Edited by Francis Bowen. 14 volumes now ready. Back 
volumes supplied. 



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